Too High
by Bape
Summary: A teenage pothead gets too high and gets transported into the world of One Piece. Rated M for drugs, violence and heavy language. (SI) (SYOC)
1. Disclaimer

I do not own One Piece, I only own my writing, my original characters, and my ideas.

This story is dedicated to me, myself and I.

This story will include heavy language, drugs, sexual activities, violence, topics that some of you may not be comfortable with. If you have a problem with it, then this story may not be for you.

The first part of this story involves me and my real life. Some names have been changed for privacy.


	2. Prologue

My name is Randall. Randall Brenes, that is. Well, Randall is my middle name, but I don't like my first name, so we won't talk about that again.

I'm 15 years old, but I'll be 16 in a couple months. I live in Miami, Florida, home to the greatest team in the NBA and in sports in general. If you couldn't already tell, I'm proud of my hometown, and with good reason too. I love telling people that I live in Miami, because, well, let's face it. Who doesn't want to live in Miami?

 **Ring, ring, ring...** _Fuck,_ I thought to myself, just barely waking up, starting to get myself out of bed. _It's Monday again._

As I lifted myself up out of bed, I looked around my room. It was due for a cleaning again. Dirty clothes were thrown across the floor, my shoes were scattered around the room, all 12 pairs of them. All my lighters were hanging around my desk, small ziplock bags were scattered on the floor, and a faint smell of marijuana was lingering in the air. I placed an incense on the incense holder on my desk and lit it, hiding the smell of marijuana.

I'm not going to try and hide it, I'm a huge stoner. I used to be addicted to xanax, percocet and alcohol, but I kicked those terrible habits as of November, 2017, and decided I could live without them, and stuck to weed. I was pretty proud of myself at the time, when I quit cold turkey and, with all my friends around me making sure, threw every single pill bottle I had in my room into the Miami River. They threw a huge party for me that night, and it was one of the best nights of my life. Until I woke up at 5:30 A.M. in the morning, with cold sweats, throwing up, and in the pissiest mood anybody has ever seen me in. A month and a half later, I was back to my normal self. That was one of the worst experiences I had in my life, and I'm glad I stopped doing drugs before they took over my life.

I went through my closet for a good 10 minutes before choosing out a pair of tapered stonewashed True Religion jeans, a white polo and a black pullover Nike hoodie. For accesories I chose out an all-black Louis Vuitton belt and my favorite cuban link gold chain, with an iced-out crucifix. The shoes I chose out from my 12 pairs were the "FEAR" Air Jordan IV.

That was another thing I prided myself on. My shoe game. For me, it's very important to wear nice shoes, they just bring the whole outfit together.

I then looked at the whole outfit together in the mirror.

Now, I don't consider myself particularly bad looking, but I'm not exactly the most confident either. Some days, I'll feel good about myself but others I'll look at myself and say, _damn you ugly._

I'm sure I'm not ugly though, I just feel like I am sometimes. I have light green eyes, a small nose, freckles, a sharp jawline, some light chin hairs and what some girls would call "perfect lips." I've had some of my ex-girlfriends tell me they wish they had my lips, but I'm indifferent.

I stand around 5'9" and a half, but I just tell everybody I'm 5'10" to make myself seem a little bit taller. I have pretty broad shoulders. My build is mostly lean, but I have some bulk, in my arms and my chest, my upper back too, and my legs. There's a thin outline of a six pack around my abs that some days is more noticeable than others. I could probably make it noticeable all the time, but I haven't been to the gym in well over a month. I should probably start going to the gym regularly again.

I started getting ready to leave my house. I grabbed my backpack, put it on my back and grabbed my half empty wax cartridge and an e-cigarette battery and hid it in my shoes, I left my room, went downstairs, grabbed my SoCal Flyer, and pedaled my way down to Angel's house, where my two best friends were waiting for me so we could all ride to school together.

It took only about 3 minutes to get to school, and we had a good 40 minutes before classes started, so I met some of my other friends at the parking lot to spark up before school started.

 **RING RING RING RING RING,** the school first bell went off, signaling everybody to start walking to their homeroom classes.

[2 hour timeskip]

I was in the middle of one of the best naps I'd ever taken in school, when my friend called me.

Picking up the phone as discreetly as possible, I answered, "yea?"

"Ride out after this period with the rest of the gang, meet in the forest," the person on the other end of the line ordered, and to be honest it sounded good, so I didn't protest. That was Gabriel, my other close friend.

[Short timesekip: 1 hour]

Class ended, awakening me from my stellar nap.

I nearly sprinted out to the courtyard where the entire gang, minus Gabriel was waiting and we discussed our plans to leave through the side door.

We quickly made our way to the 4th building hallways where we entered the staircase and I checked for security outside.

Trying not to think about it, I led the way and sprinted out of the stair case out to the open field at the front.

Without looking, I ran across the street and after making it to the neighborhood across, I looked back to make sure my gang was behind me, and as expected, they were right behind me.

Without even talking, we hurried over to our spot where Gabriel was waiting for us.

I was sweating under the hot sun after walking for what seemed like an eternity. We all walked into the spot, a forest with a clearing and a couple of chairs we had placed under the trees. We used this spot all the time to smoke some blunts and just talk about shit. Most of the time, I don't even remember talking anything I say.

We all greeted Gabriel and then sat down. We had Gabriel, the tallest out of us, 16 years old and a dropout, he sells weed sometimes but right now he's working at a pizza shop. Then Brian, who was just slightly taller than me and the oldest out of all of us, at 17, also the only one with a car. Then there was DQ, also 17, and my same height. There was the shortest one, Ryan who was also a couple months younger than me. Then came Robert, the craziest one out of all of us. He tried to light the forest on fire one time. He's 16 and stands right around six feet tall. And my third best friend, Jordan. As soon as we formed this gang, I knew Jordan had to be in on it, and now we all have each others back for anything. We swore on our lives we'd never snitch, and always have each others backs. And the last one of us, Danny, who's gotten arrested like 6 times, for a number of things which I won't tell you guys about, mostly because there's no point.

"Aye, y'all check this out. Some alien weed," Gabriel started. "This is the most gas shit I've ever bought."

"And? How much you pay for all that?" Ryan questioned.

"25 a gram but-" I cut him off.

"Damn dog they finessed the fuck outta you. That shit's probably straight boof I'm telling you," I told him, trying to hold back laughter.

DQ was laughing his ass off. "They sold this nigga alien weed for 25 bucks a gram. You stupid as fuck my nigga."

"They probably told him it was straight from mars," Ryan said, causing nearly all of us except for Brian and Gabriel to crack up.

"I'm telling you, y'all gonna see. Did you bring the dutches?"

"Yea," DQ confirmed while pulling two packs of three dutches out of his pocket.

"Oh dog I forgot. I brought my wax," I told them while taking the cartridge and battery out of my shoes.

"You did? Let me hit that shit," Gabriel told me while splitting the first dutch.

"Damn, G, lemme hit that," DQ said.

"You gotta let me roll a blunt though," I told him.

"You mean fold a blunt?" He jokingly said, making Ryan, Jordan and Brian laugh.

"Nah, I mean roll a blunt. Pass me a dutch."

I screwed the cartridge onto the battery and passed it to Gabriel, who took a hit and starting rolling his blunt. He passed the wax to DQ, and we rotated like that until it got back to me. I took two hits and started breaking up my weed in preparation for the blunt.

It didn't look too bad, the weed that is. Certainly not worth 25 bucks for a dime, but I guess we can't say for sure until we start smoking.

We finished rolling all six of our blunts, with a good amount of weed left over. We lit all of them at the same time.

From my blunt, I took two hits and passed it to my left. The next blunt came to me, and I took two fat hits again, and then passed it to my left.

All of a sudden, the wax and the weed hit all at once and I realized I was high.

"Holy shit. Money well spent," I said.

DQ agreed while coughing up a lung. "Damn Gabriel you can't roll a blunt if your life depended on it. This shit is gas though."

I took another rip from the next blunt and came up with an idea. Grabbing a full water bottle, I took a lighter and burned a small hole in the cap, then put the blunt to the hold while the cap was screwed on and poked a decently sized hole on the bottom of the water bottle.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Brian asked.

"You'll see," I replied. I stuffed the end of the blunt into the hole and let the water drain out, drawing in the smoke from the blunt and filling the bottle up. When all the water was drained from the bottle, i passed the blunt and inhaled all the smoke from the hole in the cap.

"Damn dog I wanna try that shit," Robert told me.

I passed him another water bottle and gave him the cap from mine so he didn't have to burn another hole.

I exhaled all the smoke, and as I did, I started coughing up a lung and a half. Robert copied me and when he was done, he looked at me, and his eyes were completely red. He looked stoned to the bone.

I looked at Gabriel, started laughing for no reason and I then forgot what I was gonna say. I laughed harder and harder and the rest of them started dying of laughter too.

I took another hit from my wax, and when another blunt came by, I hit them both at the same time.

I then passed the wax and the blunt, and the rest of them did the same thing. By the time we finished all six blunts, I had less than a fifth of the wax that I originally had and we were all blasted to the core.

"Alien weed," I said.

"Alien weed," Gabriel repeated.

"Dude. I don't think I can walk. What time is it?"

Ryan looked at his phone. "Uh. I don't know."

"Nigga. Your phone is upside down," DQ informed him. "It's still 12:40."

"We have hella time," Gabriel said.

"How high are y'all?" I asked.

Without hesitation, all of them said "11 out of ten."

I burst into laughter.

All of a sudden, or not, I can't tell, my vision went black. When I woke up, I was still really stoned. But i wasn't in the forest. None of my friends were there and I was on a dock, and some fishermen were standing above me, whispering some things.

Quickly, I stood up, startling them, and looked around the area. They weren't talking anymore.

"Where are we?" I questioned, my heart racing. The area was unfamiliar, and the buildings looked... unmodern, for lack of a better word. They were made out of wood and looked like something out of that manga One Piece, that I used to read when I was 13.

"We're on Dawn Island, in the East Blue," one of the fishermen told me.

"Huh? I think I heard you wrong. Can you repeat that?"

"We're on Dawn Island," he repeated, unamused.

I burst into laughter, earning a strange look from both of them. "Goddamn, that alien weed sure was no joke. Now quit playing with me, where the fuck am I?"

"I'm not repeating myself."

I took another good, hard look at my surroundings. I was wearing the same clothes, so I thought it was just a prank being pulled on me.

I turned around and looked at the ocean, then the shore. Sure enough, there was no beach, just rocks.

I pulled the wax out of my shoe again, took the longest, hardest drag I'd ever taken, and passed out.

I guess you can say the weed took me to another planet. Or universe, in this case.

 ** _I've tried writing stories before, but none of them really satisfied me until this one. I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself. What do you guys think? The timeline is about a year or so before Ace sets off. In case you guys couldn't tell, this a self-insert. Please leave your thoughts and reviews for me to read, I'd really appreciate some feedback._**


	3. Chapter I

I didn't like this. Not one bit. I missed being at home, even going to school just to leave, and all the nice things I had.

I was wearing the same clothes I was when I somehow got transported to this place, which I didn't mind, mostly because I liked my outfit. I also had my backpack on me, which I was extremely lucky for.

I opened my backpack to check and make sure I had everything. Rummaging through my belongings, I found my glock-17, with a magazine inside and another magazine lying at the bottom of the bag, both filled. Off to the side was a vacuum sealed bag filled with marijuana, which would last me a good two weeks if I was conservative. Scattered here and there were a couple of lighters, a butane torch, a glass pipe, a pack of raw papers to roll with, filter paper, my switchblade and a solar powered battery for my phone. And finally, my speaker lied at the bottom of the bag.

Now hold up, these don't sound like school supplies. What kind of student carries a gun, a switchblade, lighters and drugs in his backpack, you might be asking. And my answer to that is, the kind of student that doesn't care about school, leaves without permission and runs with a gang.

In a way, I felt relieved. Relieved of my failing every class, relieved that I could have freedom in this world, and relieved that nobody could tell me anything and that I would no longer need to watch my back and lookout for police, security guards and angry neighbors complaining about the smell of weed.

In a way, that was what I had wanted, I just wish I didn't have to leave my mom behind. I wish I could have been a better kid, a better student, so I wouldn't have to be worrying about all those things.

Overcome by emotion, tears started forming in my eyes. It was no use though. I'd just have to make the best out of my situation.

I was interrupted from my moment of sadness when a kid, maybe two years younger than than I nearly made me jump from my skin.

"Who are you?" He asked, with my back turned to him which forced me to jump up and straighten my back, and hide my belongings. Yeah, looking out for yourself for years will make you scared of anybody creeping up behind you. Where I come from, they would've said they caught me lacking, but I realized there was nothing to be worried about soon after. The kid seemed friendly enough.

"Watchu got there?" He curiously asked, peeking at my bag.

"Nothing," I quickly responded, zipping it up to conceal what was inside. My heart was racing and my back was sweating from the nerve attack I had.

"Who are you?" He questioned.

"I should be asking you the same thing. Where'd ya get the hat?"

"Oh this?" He wondered, taking the straw hat off his head, revealing his messy black hair underneath. His eyes showed admiration and looking at the hat in his hand, he answered, "Shanks gave me this hat."

"Shanks?"

"Yea, I promised him a long time ago that I'd return this hat when I became king of the pirates."

"Who are you?" I questioned, memories of the manga I used to read years ago now flooding my brain.

"My names Monkey D. Luffy. I'm the man who's going to be king of the pirates!" He exclaimed, showing a determined expression on his face.

"Yea... good luck with that," I told him. I stood up, placed the straps on my backpack over my shoulders and started walking towards Luffy.

"Oh! You should meet Ace!" He excitedly said, and started walking with me.

"Ace?"

"Yea! He's my big brother! He can be a meanie sometimes but apart from that he's really cool!"

He then grabbed my arm and stretched his other arm towards a tree before rocketing us into the forest at speeds which would've made anybody nauseous. Including me.

When we landed I was so nauseous that I almost threw up my small intestine. I supressed the feeling though, and got back on my feet.

My nausea subsided after a few minutes and Luffy started to call Ace.

While he was distracted, I reached into my bag, grabbed my glock and my switchblade, then placed the gun under my waistband, concealing it under my hoodie. I clipped the switchblade onto my jean pocket and closed my backpack.

Ace appeared from the forest after a little while. "What do you want Luffy? I'm still training."

"Ah. I forgot," Luffy said. I face palmed.

"Who's this weirdo?" Ace asked, signaling towards me.

"Oh yea! This is ummmmm..." he thought about what to say for a moment. "What was your name again?"

I looked at him, pondering whether I should call him an idiot, or answer his question. I decided upon the latter. "Randall," I told him.

Ace took one look at me, and walked away. "I don't trust him," he said.

I didn't take any offense, as I knew where he was coming from. "Likewise," I shot back.

I got up and walked away from the area, to a more secluded part of the forest. When I reached a tree stump, I sat down and set my belongings on the floor.

It was really hot in that forest, so I took my hoodie off and set it down by my side. I opened my bag, took out the vacuum sealed bag, my filter paper and my rolling paper.

I sliced open the top of the bag and set apart two medium sized weed nuggets, and began to roll a cone to satisfy my cravings.

Just my luck, as soon as I started to light the joint, Luffy appeared out of the trees. "Whatcha doing?"

Again, he made me jump. This time, however, I spilled all my weed over the ground.

"Holy fuck!" I yelled out, turning around. "Can you maybe not sneak up on my next time? You made me drop everything."

"Sorry," he said, while helping me pick up the weed I spilled. He brought some to his nose, took a whiff and asked, "what is this stuff?"

"Gas," I told him.

"It smells weird. And now my fingers are all sticky," he said, while rubbing his index and his thumb together.

I laughed. "Yea, the smell isn't for everyone. It tastes pretty good though."

I didn't realize what I had just done. Without even thinking about it, Luffy grabbed another one and threw it in his mouth. He spat it out almost instantly.

"This tastes horrible!" He cried while trying to wash out his tongue.

"No, you idiot, that's not what I meant. This is how you taste it, watch." I brought my finished joint to my mouth, and, covering the tip from the wind, I lit it on fire.

I took a couple of puffs to get a decent ember going, took the joint out of my mouth and blew on the frontside a couple times. Luffy watched me carefully.

After I made sure I had a nice cherry going, I put it to my mouth and took a nice, long drag.

Luffy eyed the joint, and then asked, "can I try?"

I looked at him, took the joint out of my mouth and said, "sure, just don't suck in for too long, and make sure to inhale, otherwise you'll burn your mouth."

I passed it to Luffy, and he started to take a drag. It wasn't as long as mine, but he started hacking up a lung, causing me to crack up.

"Doesn't it taste like mango?" I asked.

He nodded, still coughing and passed me the joint back.

I looked at him, and said, "you'll start to feel good pretty soon."

I took another drag, then asked if he wanted to take another hit and he agreed.

We finished the joint and when I looked at him, his lips curved into a smile, and he started to laugh, and laugh and laugh. He could not contain his laughter. His eyes were dropped to the height of an asians and they were completely shot. If you looked at him, and you didn't know, you would assume he had pink eye, and stay away.

"Man, I'm hungry," he said, rubbing his stomach.

"Yea? It does that to you," I informed him. "I'm hungry too, do you have anything to eat?"

"No, but we can go hunting," he said, still laughing.

"Let's go then."

I then gathered all my belomgings and he led me to a part of the forest near a river, where he said we could catch an alligator.

"You can catch... an alligator?"

"Yup!" He proudly exclaimed.

The alligators here were much larger than the occasional alligator we would encounter in Miami, it made it even more impressive when Luffy caught the wild gator.

It didn't take long before he did catch an alligator, but it still took longer than it normally would've taken Luffy.

"Man, you have to teach me how to do that."

Luffy frowned. "We can't eat him with the skin, let me go get a knife."

I stopped him and pulled out my switchblade. "No need."

I stabbed the blade into the stomach of the alligator and sliced it open. From there, I didn't know what to do so I gave Luffy the knife and he made quick work of it.

From there, we set up a campfire and I helped him start a fire with my torch. We poked some alligator meat with sticks and started to cook them.

After what felt like an eternity, I finished cooking my first piece, meanwhile Luffy was struggling. He had dropped his piece into the fire and burnt it to a crisp.

I started eating my piece, and helped Luffy out. He couldn't really control himself while completely blazed out like we were.

At that moment, that alligator was the best food I'd ever eaten. I had no idea how hungry I was, and managed to stuff myself full of 7 large portions of the alligator. Luffy, on the other hand, was on his 12th portion after he mastered cooking while stoned, and it didn't seem like he was stopping anytime soon.

He just stabbed the gator meat with his stick, cooked it, and ate the whole piece in one bite.

I continued watching in amazement. "How is it possible for you to eat so much?"

Still eating, he answered, "I don't know."

He was multitasking, cooking multiple portions while eating. Describing it in words just doesn't do the scene justice.

Right after he finished eating the rest of the gator, leaving just the bones and the thick alligator skin, he immediately fell asleep. I couldn't blame him, it makes you really sleepy.

I got up, and went to the river to clean my knife. I decided I could do without my shirt, so I took it off and ripped a piece off from the side, which I used to wipe the alligator blood from my blade.

Again, I seem to have the best luck. I threw the piece of the shirt off to the side by where Luffy was asleep, stained with the gator blood, which to anybody that passed by, would seem just a little suspicious. I set my blade down, not realizing this and right as I did, Luffy's brother, Ace, happened to walk by.

If you can't guess where this is going, you have the IQ of a crawfish.

Ace looked at the scene, saw the open blade and the shirt stained with alligator blood and assumed the worst.

I didn't notice him, until he tackled me and started to punch me in the face until I managed to wrestle him off of me.

"What the fuck is your problem?" I asked, wiping the blood from my lip.

"You killed my brother! I knew I was right to not trust you! Now look what you've done!" He yelled out, and went to attack me again.

I dodged his first punch, grabbed his wrist, turned him around and kicked him into the ground. "You're wrong, he's asleep."

"Like I would believe that!" He yelled, getting up and rushing me again.

I dodged again, grabbed him by his shirt and shoved him to the ground. "Check for yourself. I ain't no liar."

He then got up, set aside his rage for a little bit and shook Luffy to get him to wake up. "Luffy! Wake up!"

Luffy, however, was dead asleep, but at least when Ace turned him over, he could see that I wasn't lying, and that Luffy was snoring.

"Just let him rest, he's tired. He did catch an alligator, after all," I informed him.

"He wouldn't get tired after just catching an alligator. He's always super energetic."

"Well I wouldn't know then, he just finished eating and fell asleep immediately after."

I picked up my switchblade, examined it for any stains, then closed the blade and put it back inside my pocket.

Ace sat down next to Luffy. There was an awkward silence for a couple of minutes, until Ace spoke up.

"If Gold Roger had a son..." He paused, then he continued, "should he have been born?"

I looked at him, before answering to the best of my ability. "I don't know who Gold Roger is or was, but I do know that it isn't right to wish anybody death. So I guess my answer would be, yes, he should have been born. I think everything happens for a reason, and it isn't in our power to change the past or the future. It also doesn't matter where someone comes from, what matters is that they're their own person."

He looked at me, speechless. I couldn't understand why. I knew I was in the One Piece world, but for some reason, I couldn't rememeber anything about it, other than a couple of major characters.

"And I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not from here," I told him.

He looked at me, and asked, "what do you mean? You just appeared here?"

"To be honest, I don't even know myself. This whole place is uncharted territory for me. I brought along some things that might help you understand." I pulled out my phone, which still had battery as I hadn't touched it since I landed. I showed it to him, and he was fascinated by it. He had never seen anything like it.

"Where I come from, this is called an iPhone. It's useless here though, 'cause I need a variety of things in order to use it. All I can do with it right now is play the music I have on it."

"So, you can store music on this little thing?"

"Yea, it's hard to explain, but I can show you." I opened my backpack and pulled out the bluetooth speaker, and then traded the speaker back for my phone. "Can you press down on that button right there?"

He pressed it down, and it made a sound signaling it was ready to pair to my phone. I connected it to my phone and opened Apple Music, and started to play some trap music that's generally popular in Miami.

When the music started blasting through, Ace didn't know how to react. It startled him, and he looked around to see where else the music would be coming from, but it was clear there was nowhere else it could be coming from.

"I don't like it," he said, so I turned it off.

"They like it where I come from. Not for everybody I guess."

"Luffy would be amazed by all of this. You should show him when he wakes up." Just as he finished saying that, Luffy stirred.

"Oh, I fell asleep," he said. His eyes weren't as low as before, and they were mostly clear by now.

"I need to ask you two for a favor," I started, earning questioning looks from both of them. "I need to get stronger, can I train with you for a couple years? I'm not planning on staying here forever, so I need to get stronger for when I leave."

"You seemed plenty strong when I attacked you," Ace stated.

"You guys fought?" Luffy asked.

"Yea, while you were sleeping. Nothing serious though," I answered.

"You can train with us, just don't expect me to go easy on you," Ace said.

"I was hoping you would say that," I replied, grinning like a madman. Ace smirked.

"Great! Let's start right now!" Luffy energetically exclaimed.


	4. Chapter II

It's been two years since that day. I hadn't changed much, except for the fact that I grew an extra inch and a half, now standing 5'11". My hair had also grown out a lot, going from a skinfade to now, a messy head of hair, not unlike Luffy's, except my hair is brown. My build has also gotten bulkier, my voice slightly deeper and, well, that's about it.

I kept my old clothes, my shoes were still in pristine condition, mostly because I hadn't worn them all that much, instead opting for sandals in the hot climate of the East Blue. My hoodie had become faded, my jeans grew some rips in them, but again, I hadn't worn them all that much.

My outfit right now, consisted of a slightly oversized white t-shirt, my gold chain, and some jean shorts that reached down to my knees. Oh, and the sandals I had made for myself using the skin of an alligator. Back in Miami, alligator skin was used as a fashion piece, but I had only used it because there was nothing elss to use.

I still kept my gun in my waistband, still fully loaded because there was no use for it on the small island I now called home. My switchblade had become dull, but I did try and sharpen it a little bit, but I'm not really the best at sharpening knives. And by not the best, I mean, I fucking suck.

I had found a couple seeds in that bag of marijuana, and I did plant all of them, but only two of them ended up growing. I didn't care though, because it was a start. They had flourished into tall, pungent plants that could be smelled half a mile away. I kept them in the forest because nobody really liked the smell, other than me, and that smell reached quite far.

That didn't matter though, as it was almost time for me to leave. Ace had left last year when he turned 17, and my 17th birthday is today, so I decided I'd journey out as well. Luffy still had to wait another couple of years to leave though.

"Randall!" Luffy called, bringing my attention away from my backpack, which I still had yet to pack for my departure.

"Gimme a sec!" I answered. I got up, brushed the dust off my shorts and made my way down my treehouse, which I had constructed over the past year, as my living arrangement. I felt intrusive sleeping in Ace and Luffy's treehouse, so I made my own as a living arrangement, not far from the ASL treehouse.

I climbed down the treehouse, looked around, but Luffy was nowhere to be found.

"Luffy!" I called out, and he appeared with a large cake, that read 'Happy Birthday!' in icing. "You didn't have to get this for me," I told him.

"I wanted to though! I asked Makino to make it so I could surprise you!" He informed me, as energetically as ever.

"I'll have to tell her thank you before I leave then," I said, although mostly to myself.

Luffy set the cake down, then pulled a bottle of sake that was hidden behind him in front, along with two cups, and sat down. "I want you to be my brother!" He exclaimed.

I just looked at him, sat down and watched him pour two cups. "If we drink this, we'll be brothers," he told me. I agreed.

I picked up a cup filled with the sake, held it up and said "cheers," before we tapped them together and downed them at the same time.

We then ate the cake, just the two of us. I kind of wish Ace could've enjoyed this cake along with us, but it wasn't too big of a deal. More cake for me, I guess.

We made quick work of the cake, mostly Luffy though, as usual, but my appetite had increased over the years.

"I have to finish packing my things," I said. "We can spend some time together when I'm done though."

"Okay!" He agreed, and then watched me climb back up the treehouse.

It didn't take long for me to finish packing. I didn't have a lot of things, really, just a bit of clothes, and some other things I could probably fit on my person instead of stuffing inside the bag.

Finishing up, I brought my backpack down and called, "Luffy! I'm done packing!"

He appeared in less than a couple seconds, and then knocked me down, grinned and told me to fight him. "No holding back this time!" He ordered.

I swiftly got back on my feet, placed my feet apart and held a fighting stance.

Luffy attacked first, which put me on defense. "Gum-Gum... pistol!" He called out, stretching his right arm back and then extending it towards me.

I barely managed to dodge. He had gotten a lot better at his technique ever since he figured out how to aim it last year. Still, it had a weakness. I grabbed his extended arm with both my hands, and, using all the muscle in my body, I pulled him and used his stretching ability against him.

I sent him into the ground at breakneck speeds, got on his back, and tied his arms into a knot.

Still, he got up and started using his legs and his head. He used his stretching ability to step on my chest, knocking me to the ground. Then, he stretched his neck back, called out, "gum-gum... bell!" and headbutted me hard enough that it gave me a migraine.

I clutched my head in agony, and meanwhile Luffy got up, grabbed onto a tree and freed his arms.

Once I was done agonizing, although my head was still throbbing, I walked back up to him, and socked him right across the jaw as hard as I could, sending him into the ground and skidding a few feet back. If my punches had any real effect on him, it would be a much better fight, but they didn't, and the fight was rather one-sided.

"This is pointless. I can't do anything to you," I said, sitting down.

Luffy sat down next to me. "Do you have a dream, Randall?"

Now that I thought about it, I didn't really have one. I know Luffy wanted to be King of the Pirates, Ace wanted his name to be heard around the world, but me? That was hard to answer. I always did think bounties were cool to have, so I guess my dream would be to have a high bounty, but that didn't seem like enough for me. Thinking about it really hard though... "I want to be able to walk into a store, restaurant, and have everybody know exactly who I am. I want to have stories about me told fifty, no, a hundred years after I die. I want to make an impact on every island I step foot on. Yes, my dream is to become a legend."

Luffy listened to every word I said. I thought of myself as corny at the moment, but Luffy looked at me in fascination. "That's so cool!" He yelled energetically.

I smiled. If nothing else, his words motivated me even more.


	5. Chapter III

The waves were pretty rough that day. The day I left on a one-man boat to the open sea. In retrospect, it was a bad idea. I was a terrible navigator, I had no compass, no map, and no basic idea of where I was going. But my faded self hadn't realized that, and left extremely unprepared.

Anyways, the sea would carry me wherever it felt I should go. Not that that was a problem, I just should have been more prepared.

I left maybe half an hour ago? I wouldn't know, I haven't been keeping track of the time. All I know is the sun is out, which means it must be daytime.

There's not much to do except either row or smoke, but I was too lazy for either of those so I took a nap.

[Short Timeskip: 2.5 hours]

The feeling of the boat getting pushed onto shore and stopping abrubtly woke me up. I attempted to stand up, stumbled a bit but caught my footing on the sand of the shore.

I examined my surroundings. Immediately in my area was just a beach, with some palm trees that reminded me of the beaches in Miami, but there was nobody on this beach. Whether that was because it was already sundown and it was starting to get windy or because nobody here likes beaches, I wouldn't stay long enough to know.

Behind the beach was a town, maybe a market town? Maybe it was just a regular town, I wouldn't know.

I made my way up the beach, trying to stop the wind from pushing sand into my eyes.

Once I got up the beach, I walked the short distance to the village, which up close was much larger than I expected. There was a crowd of people listening to some guy ramble on about how the world was supposedly ending in a few years, and it sounded eerily similar to what people were saying back in 2012, except this world is about 500 years away from 2012.

I walked off from the crowd, and looked for a place where I would maybe be able to find a new crewmember that would know their way around the sea.

I spotted a bar, and began heading in that direction, when out of the blue I was knocked to the ground by some woman running.

"Sorry," she mumbled, and quickly got up and ran off. I didn't get a good look at her, but she had fair skin and golden blonde hair, and I noticed her holding onto a black piece of leather, which resembled my wallet.

Actually, it was my wallet. 'That fucking woman!' I cursed myself for not noticing earlier and ran in the direction she was headed.

I felt the eyes of the townspeople staring at me as I ran by, but I didn't care that much, all I cared about was my wallet. I had brought it over from my past life, and it was special to me.

Following her led me to a forest, and then eventually to a clearing, where I thought I had lost her, but something caught my eye.

A wall caged in a building, which I could only see the top of. The only entrance seemed to be a gate, which was guarded by a small group of four people, each one armed with your average pirate cutlass and a pistol.

Then, that same golden-haired woman appeared by the gate, and she was let through without much persuasion. A pirate, maybe?

I snuck around behind the trees, rustling leaves as I moved, which might have alerted some of the guards.

"I'm gonna go check that out, whatever that was," a voice said, coming from the direction of the guards.

The guard started to head in my direction. Heart racing, I waited until he was close enough to attack.

Once he passed me, still oblivious to my presence, I put him in a headlock, causing him to let out a loud yelp, but I silenced him almost instantly.

"Fuck," I cursed under my breath.

"Hey, what was that? Are you ok?" another guard asked, now alert.

I didn't answer, and instead decided to attack. I picked up the unconscious body of the first guard, and used him to shield me as I ran over to the gate.

As I expected, they noticed instantly.

They pointed their pistols at me, but once they noticed I was carrying their friend, they put them down and rushed me with their cutlasses.

I threw the body in their direction, forcing them to move out of the way. I then proceeded to pull out my switchblade, flip the blade out and stab the first one in the hand he was carrying the sword with, making him drop it and clutch his hand in pain.

The other two guards came up behind me, but I anticipated their attack, just a simple slash aimed towards my neck and used the guard in agony to jump away from their attack, and then kicked him towards their attack.

They avoided slicing their friend's arm off, and continued to attack me. Using more caution, the one to my left attempted a slash at my neck, which I ducked from, picked him up from his legs and flipped him over me, knocking out the last guard.

 **Purupurupurupurupuru** , a miniature transponder snail rang, with an angry expression and glasses covering his eyes.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Ah good, I heard some fighting by the gate, what happened?" The man on the other side of the line questioned.

"Um..." I thought of what to say. Quickly deciding on a story, I continued, "there was uhhh, an intruder at the gate, but we took care of him."

"Are you sure? You don't sound too sure of yourself," he said. As he said those words, I noticed one of the guards crawling over in my direction.

Eyeing him, I said, "lemme check," and kicked the man crawling in the chest. "Yea, he's out."

"Good," he praised. He said something else, but I didn't feel like talking to the man any longer, so I tossed the snail and used my vertical to latch onto the top of the concrete wall.

Peeking over, I spotted the man that I was talking to just a second ago, now having a conversation with the woman from earlier, pile of wallets laying by his side.

I decided that it would be stupid of me to go in right now, and just walked back into the town. I went back to that bar I was at the front of earlier, and walked in.

I walked over to the counter, looking at my surroundings, and the bartender noticed this, so he asked, "you lost kid?"

I normally don't like people talking down to me, and this wasn't a special case, so I decided to annoy him a little bit before asking about the people in the forest clearing.

"I need to speak to someone with authority," I told him, hoping to get on his nerves.

"You are," he scoffed.

"No, I mean someone in charge. Your boss, maybe,"I smirked.

He sucked his teeth. I was getting under his skin.

"Alright, I'm done," I said once I was satisfied with his reaction. "Who lives behind that wall in the forest?" I demanded.

"That's where the Aldin pirates live. They have this island under control, and they'll kill you if you even walk by. Their captain is the great Aldin-sama, and I suggest you leave if you enjoy life."

"Jeez, how can you even speak with Aldin's dick so far down your throat?" I rhetorically asked. "It's not like these East Blue pirates are strong or anything. Just a bunch of small fry."

Clearly, some of the pirates in the bar didn't like those words.

A barrel-chested man got up from his chair, earning looks from some of the other people in the bar, and causing some of the other people enjoying drinks to leave the bar, scared like dogs when they hear fireworks.

Murmurs of "ooohh, he's gonna get it," and "he's done for" were scattered around the bar. Everyone was staring at me now.

That same barrel-chested pirate walked over to where I sat, and swiftly slammed his sword into the bar counter.

"What did you say about us East Blue pirates?" He asked in a threatening manner.

"Are you deaf or something? Did your lackeys cum too much in your ears that your hearing was affected or something?"

The man, standing about 6'5" was overwhelmed with rage. "Do you know who I am?" He yelled, just about ready to blow a gasket.

"No, am I supposed to?" I questioned, digging deeper and deeper under his skin. "If I had one berry for every wannabe pirate I've seen today, I'd have..." My voice trailed and I started pointing at every pirate in the bar, silently mouthing the numbers.

This pissed off the entire bar, and before long, they were all getting up and charged at me. It soon erupted into a full blown bar fight, and they were all so outraged that they didn't notice me now sitting at the corner of the bar, enjoying a nice meal, paid for by some wannabe pirates.

Suddenly, the bar doors flew off their hinges, pausing the entire fight, and three tall and built men walked in.

They slowly walked towards the bar counter, and all the pirates made way for them.

They then turned around to stare at everyone, making them cower in fear, and the man in the middle started, "we're looking for a man. A man that attacked our guards. If any of you have seen a man wearing a white t-shirt with a golden chain, please step forward."

Nobody said a word, and I just looked straight at the three. He cracked his knuckles, which caused everybody, minus myself and the bartender, and obviously his companions to sweat bullets.

"Otherwise," he spoke loudly, yet clearly. "We'll force it out of you."

I finished the last plate of food left on that table, and let out a loud burp.

"Man, I sure was starving," I nearly yelled, earning everyone's attention.

Everybody in the bar at that point made note of my clothing, and surely, it matched the description he was looking for.

The three guys that had made everybody part ways and stop their fight walked over in my direction, and then the one to my left spoke. "If you would just come along with us, our boss would like to have a word with you."

"Your boss? Does he have a name?" I asked, being a smartass as usual.

They scoffed, and the rest of the pirates in the bar whispered amongst each other, saying things like "he's got balls," and "this punk took out their guards? He's done for."

None of which even bothered me. I sat in my chair, alert and ready to fight if I needed to.

"Do you see the mark on my back?" The first man asked, taking off his shirt to reveal a jolly roger with crossed swords behind the skull and a pair of sunglasses covering the eyes of the skull.

"Where'd ya get the corny tattoo? The discount market?" I smirked, knowing I would get under his skin too.

The man to his left, or my right pulled out a sword, and said, "I'll take care of this runt, brother."

I sat with my legs on top of the table, relaxed, yet still ready for anything to happen.

He walked over to me, gripped his sword tightly and went for a hard slash that would've amputated my legs, but didn't, only because I moved my legs at the last second and jumped over my chair, then grabbed my chair by a leg and smashed it over his neck, splintering him badly, yet not enough to take him out.

He grabbed a handful of splinters out of the back of his neck, and grinded his teeth and said, "you'll regret that."

He charged at me sword first but I used his head to flip over him and then gave him a nice, good taste of my elbow in his face, knocking out a couple of his teeth and making him spit blood.

"Wow. That was... even worse than I expected. Anyone else want a shot?" I seriously asked, eyeing the crowd.

This time, the last two brothers both charged at me, so I pulled out the gun from under my waistband, and decided I wanted some rest.

I let them attack first, and as expected of any pirate I would encounter this early in my journey, they wasted their chance to kill me with a simple punch and a slash from both of them. Dodging their attacks, I cocked the slide on my pistol, turned around, and pulled the trigger, looking away to avoid seeing the sin I was about to commit.

It was messier than I expected. I observed the damage I had caused to his poor, undeserving skull. The bullet made a small entry hole, but when it came through the other side, now a crushed piece of lead, his skull had been blown apart, making blood splash everywhere, including my shirt.

"Aw fuck, you got my shirt all dirty," I said, taking off my shirt and tossing it to reveal my build.

The other brother was in shock at what had just happened. "Brother!" He cried out. Tears flowed from his eyes, and I felt kind of bad for him, so I decided to let him take me to his boss.

"I'll go see what your boss wants, if it'll make you feel better about your brothers brain splattered all over the-"

"Shut up! The only reason I haven't killed you yet is because of my bosses orders."

"That, and you literally cannot do anything to me."

"Shut up."


	6. Chapter IV

The Aldin pirates were a much smaller crew than I had been anticipating. Those three brothers, one of which I had killed shortly before, were his first mates.

Supposedly, there was a large gap between the strength of the first mates and the captain who had named this sorry ass crew after himself. I was hoping so too.

Aldin was maybe double my age. He was an old fellow, that's for sure, but he sure was big. Not just tall, either, but the man looked like he weighed 400 pounds with less than ten percent body fat.

I came in at around 190 pounds. Put simply, in an even playing field, this man would destroy my spine with not so much as a light tap.

So it came as no surprise that when I was up close, with my arms tied behind my back, I was intimidated. Of course, it would be stupid of me to show that, so I kept a poker face.

"Untie him," he told one of his men, and they followed his order without so much as a squeak. "Now, I've been a pirate for since you were born, and not a single time, not once! Has an insolent brat, or anybody, for that matter attacked _my_ crew, _my_ men. And yet, here you are, casually taking out not one, not two, not three, not four either but SIX of my men. And not just the guards at the gate either. No, those are expendable. I'm more pressed on the fact that you not only took two of my first mates out, but you _killed_ one of them," he spoke all high and mighty, yet clearly seethed with rage.

"Oh yea, you should see the body. His brains just, painted the walls. A beautiful sight, gruesome, yet beautiful," I spoke, too high to comprehend how much of a smartass I was being.

"Silence!" He yelled. "You will speak only when it is asked of you."

"Sir, I apologize for the interruption, but I believe you have not collected tribute from the townspeople yet," one of his lackeys interrupted, sparing me temporarily. In retrospect, I should have shot the other first mate and carried on with my day, but then I'd still end up needing to retrieve my wallet.

"Ah, you're right. Men, take his weapons and throw him in the cell, I'll deal with him when I get back."

Following his orders, his men searched me and stripped me of my pistol and my switchblade, and then proceeded to toss me in an empty cell, hands locked behind my back.

As soon as the guards walked away, I slid my hands under my legs to get my hands in front of me.

I got up, walked over to the bars from where they had locked me in and tried my best to get the attention of the man with the keys to my handcuffs and the cell door.

"Psst," I whispered, making him turn around. "Yea, you. Come closer."

He did as I told him to and as soon as he was close enough, I stuck my hands through the bars, tightly gripped onto the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the cell bars, knocking him out cold.

 _'Well, that was easy,'_ I thought to myself. I reached under the bars to drag him closer, and once I did, I grabbed the keys he carried, and unlocked my handcuffs, which made everything from that point forward much, much easier.

I tried to use his keys to unlock the cell door, but that proved much more difficult from the inside, and none of the keys fit in anyways, so I was shit out of luck.

My luck, which I never had much of in the first place had begin to run out. Once the rest of the Aldin pirates find out what I did here, Aldin would surely kill me.

I sat against the cell door, trying to figure out what I would do for the next couple of hours before I was put to death would be.

Bored out of my mind, I started playing sticks between my two hands. It didn't do much for my boredom, but at least I won every game. I was on a 20 game win streak when the door opened behind my back, almost making me fall but I instantly got up, and hugged my savior, not even knowing what they looked like.

Once I released my savior from the tightest hug I'd ever given anybody, I noticed who exactly my savior was.

"You-!" I nearly yelled, but tried to keep my voice as low as possible. I pinned her against the wall, and calmly stated, "you're that woman. The one who stole my wallet. You're the reason I'm even in this mess."

"And now I'm getting you out of it, so will you please, for the love of all that's holy in this world, let go of me?" She asked, defending herself. I let go of her and stepped back. Looking at her now, she was pretty. Actually, scratch that. She was gorgeous. Drop-dead gorgeous.

Her long, golden locks perfectly complimented her fair skin. Her bright blue eyes reminded me of the ocean. I'd seen beautiful girls in Miami, but never anyone like this. Her nose was small and thin, and her lips were full. She stood well under my height, maybe 5'2" tall, with a very curvaceous figure. I can think of ten guys that would all be trying to milk a snapchat out of her so they could label her as their wifey.

"Listen, you need to leave as soon as you can. Aldin doesn't plan on letting you live. I can see it in his eyes, when he looks at you, he just wants to stomp you to a bloody mess."

"What I _need_ ," I hissed. "Is my wallet, my pistol and my switchblade."

"You can get those anywhere, but you can't get your life back." Just listening to her, I could hear the sorrow she felt, and the years of pain this man, Aldin, has put her through.

"You don't get it. There's nowhere in the world I could get those back."

"If it helps, I'll make you a pistol," she said confusing me. I looked at her questioningly, but in a matter of a few seconds, she had a pistol ready to go. Except for one minor detail.

She handed it to me. I examined it, impressed to say the least, then set it down on the ground and stomped it to shreds.

"It's not the same," I said.

"You're too stubborn. You'll get yourself killed being so hard headed," she told me.

"Why do you care so much? You don't even know me, yet you're trying to help me."

She stared at me, mouth agape and stuttered a little. "It's just, you..." she tried to speak, and began getting frustrated.

"I...? I what?"

"You remind me of somebody I knew. And I didn't want you to end up like he did," she forced out. "So, _please_ , leave this island and don't come back. It's too dangerous for you."

I heard her, but I didn't listen. "You know, I've learned that the more you tell someone not to do something, the more they want to do the opposite.

Also, how did you make that gun?"

She looked down and said, "I was forced to eat a devil fruit a few years back, the same year that Aldin killed my closest friend."

"Well, if it's any consolation, I think it's a pretty cool power to have, goldilocks." I hadn't intended to call her that, it just slipped out, but my high ass never thinks before speaking.

"I have a name," she said, flustered. "It's Jenni with an I."

"Okay, Ienny," I said.

"Tch, smartass."

"Sorry, I couldn't resist. Now, if there's nothing else to talk about here, I need to get my things so we could get off this island."

"We?" She questioned, not knowing my intentions of taking her along for the ride.

"Well, I am in need of a crewmate..." My voice trailed, leaving her to piece the rest together. "Anyways, I'm off to get what I need. You can make _that_ decision on your own."

I left to explore the mostly empty walled area, trying to figure out where my things could possible be kept.

Turns out, I was overthinking. As soon as I turned around, I came face to face with a table carrying a pile of wallets and my weapons.

I took my things back and then proceeded to search every wallet, taking bills upon bills. I probably made over ten thousand berries just from searching through half of the pile.

' _It's times like these I wish I had one of those easy buttons_ ,' I thought to myself, remembering the button that would say "that was easy" every time you pressed down on it.

I figured there was nothing else to do but wait, so I waltzed over to Aldin's large armchair, which clearly wasn't designed for me, and sat down in it.

That got boring quickly, so I walked back to my cell to talk to Jenni, but she was nowhere to be seen.

I frowned, and continued exploring the area.

I still had yet to explore the building that I saw from behind the wall, but looking closer, it wasn't much.

The walls were plain red brick, it didn't have a single window and it had their horrendous jolly roger painted on a flag at the top.

"Wow. These guys should be architects. This might be the eighth wonder. Haha, eighth," I laughed immaturely, just from the word eighth.

I waltzed in as if I owned the place. There was nobody inside. Of course, if it looked this bad, I wouldn't be inside either.

There was no paint on the walls inside either, and the first room I entered was depressing. The floor was dusty, cobwebs were on almost every corner of the room, this place looked as if it hadn't been cleaned since it was made. Maybe not even then. For fuck's sake, even the spiders had abandoned this place. At the top was a singular incandescent light bulb.

Shaking my head, I moved into the next room. The door creaked open and the bottom of the door dragged along an entire society of dustmites and left marks on the floor. Whether they were there from before or if I just now made them, I wouldn't know. Not that I cared either.

The second room was just as depressing, with thr only decoration being a staircase leading to a second floor. The building looked too short to have two floors, and the ceiling was kind of high on the first floor, so I thought, ' _maybe an attic?_ '

And I was wrong. It was a second floor, although I didn't know how they managed to fit it. Maybe the ceiling being a whole three inches above my head had something to do with it. The second floor was continuous. It was just as depressing as the first two rooms, but there was no wall in between, no light this time and still, no windows. The only thing in this room was a table at the end, with a funny looking fruit.

It looked just like a cherry, except I don't know of any kind of cherries with swirls in them. I found the whole scene kind of humorous. If I could use instagram, I would take a low quality picture of this and shitpost the hell out of it, but I figured it was just some kind of much needed decoration, so I left it alone.

I was on my way back to the staircase when I suddenly had the brilliant idea of smoking this entire building up.

I got up on the table, moving the funny cherry out of my way and used it as a makeshift chair, then produced a prerolled joint from my pocket and, with the help of my handy dandy torch lighter, I lit the joint, inhaled, and before long, the inside was all smokey, and I could guarantee anybody passing by approximately a mile away would notice without even trying to.

Once I finished the first joint, the inside was smokey to the point where you wouldn't need to take a puff to get blazed.

Unexpectedly, my stomach growled, almost as if it was telling me to eat something.

I got up, stumbled for a second, then stretched my arms out and yawned. "I'm hungry," I thought out loud.

I turned around, looked at the funny cherry, and without thinking, popped one in my mouth.

Bad idea. The second I bit down, I gagged, but since I hate seeing chewed up food, I forced myself to swallow it instead of spitting it out.

' _Jesus Christ, what the fuck was that cherry made of?'_ I thought, glaring at the other one. That one, I set on the floor and stomped on it. With a smug expression on my face, I looked at the cherry, and thought ' _that's what you get._ '

I tried to spit to get the aftertaste out of my mouth, but it was no help, so I just let it be and walked back down the stairs.

"Damn, I need some water," I said to myself while walking back into the first room. As I walked back through the door, the front door opened.

' _Wow, how did that door know I was going to open it?'_

I didn't even get to go through the door, because as I got close, Jenni, the girl I was talking to just a bit ago, was tossed inside, and the door was shut again, leaving the room dark again.

"Yo, Jenny, there you are. I was looking for you earlier," I said, oblivious to just about everything.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed.

"Just exploring," I told her. It technically wasn't a lie.

"Jesus, fuck, why is there so much smoke in here?"

My mind went back to about ten minutes ago. "I have no idea, it was like that when I got here."

"Whatever, now we're both locked inside. Aldin threw me in here because he found out I set you free. They're searching for you."

I furrowed my brows in anger. "He locked you in here for that?"

"He locks me inside any time I make a mistake," she said, looking down at the floor.

I curled my hand into a fist so tight that my knuckles were pale. "I'll kill him when I get out," I growled.

"I've tried so many times. It's impossible," she sighed.

I looked at her questioningly. "And? What makes you think I can't?"

She looked at me, a small glint of hope in her eye, but it quickly passed as she looked away and stayed silent.

A while passed before either of us said a word. She looked me in my eyes. Her beautiful blue eyes were now completely red, as were mine, I'd imagine.

She spoke first, "I'm hungry."

"It's the smoke, I swear. I got hungry after being in here for a few minutes too. I did eat a funny looking cherry, but it hasn't helped much," I mentioned.

"You ate... that fruit that was upstairs?" She asked, now curious.

"Yea, but it tasted like moldy cardboard, so I didn't finish it."

She looked at me for a few seconds, then all of a sudden burst into laughter.

I didn't realize it was the smoke making her laugh, so I asked, "what's so funny?"

And to that, she answered, still having a giggle fit, "it's just that, Aldin has been protecting that fruit for years now. He's going to throw a tantrum when he finds out you ate it," and she laughed even harder.

"Oh, I get it, you're high as a kite," I said, and then started laughing along with her.

As we laughed, the door all of a sudden opened, and in an instant, I pulled my glock out and shot Aldin three times consecutively in the chest, knocking him back and leaving him to suffocate on his own blood.

Jenni stopped laughing and looked at the scene. Aldin's body lying in a growing pool of his own blood.

With my best imitation of the easy button voice, I said, "that was easy," and she burst into laughter again.

 **I've been thinking about changing to point of view from first person to third person ominous. What do you guys think? Do you like the first person pov, or would you rather a third person pov? Of course, if I decide to change the pov, I'd also have to decide if I should rewrite the first few chapters or leave them be. It also wouldn't be a self insert anymore, cause what kind of self insert is told in third person? Just let me know what I should do, but adios for now.**


	7. Chapter V

**This chapter is super boring. I swear I fell asleep like four times writing this. Most of these chapters in the beginning are boring, but I promise it'll get better soon. Just stay with me.**

I didn't stay on the island for long after. Jenni and I celebrated for the night, and she decided to come along with me.

We had attempted to set sail on my rowboat, but between myself, Jenni and the barrel holding my two plants, we decided it would be better to steal a ship and call it a day.

Stealing a small ship was easy. We just climbed on board, brought up the single anchor and with the cool breeze passing by that night, we were able to pick up some speed, distancing ourselves from the island.

I climbed down the mast of the ship after tearing the horrid black flag that carried the jolly roger of the Aldin Pirates.

"I still can't believe it was that easy to kill Aldin," Jenni sighed. "I just wish I could've done it sooner."

"Yea, you were making such a big deal out of it that I was surprised when he dropped dead," I responded. "By any chance, do you know where we're going?"

"Not a fucking clue," she replied. "I stole this map from Aldin, and I'd like to say we're going here," she said, pointing to an island on the map, "but without a compass, we're just going wherever the wind takes us."

"So, we have no compass, not even an idea of where we are. Well, that's just great, ain't it? Shit, we might be in the running for the least prepared pirate crew. And that's if you can even call us that," I said.

"Here, I have an idea," she said, folding the map closed. "Let's play a game."

"Alright, truth or dare," I said, expecting her to say truth.

"Dare," she answered, surprising me.

"I dare you to buy a fucking compass," I told her, which made her laugh so hard she snorted.

"My turn, truth or dare?"

"Dare," I answered with a smirk.

"I dare you," she paused and thought for a bit. "Oh! I know, I dare you to keep watch tonight while I sleep comfortably."

"Ugh," I groaned. "Fine, truth or dare?"

"Truth," she answered.

"Alright, fuck this you can go sleep. I'll be in the crow's nest if you need me."

"Why would I need you?" She asked rhetorically.

"Oh, gee, I don't know, just in case you struggle to kill someone for a few years," I replied sarcastically.

"Fuck you," she said, sticking her tongue out at me. "I'm going to sleep."

"Don't wake up," I jokingly told her.

After she left to sleep in the captain's quarters, I climbed up to crow's nest and waited.

Night passed, and I was still awake, and there were still no islands in sight. However, I knew the sun rose from the east, so I opened the map up, and used the directions on the map and the sun to kind of figure out where we were heading.

The island we were heading towards was known as Mirrorball Island. The only possible explanation for that would be a giant mirror ball that gave it its name, but what do I know?

I closed the map, and sat down, deciding not to worry about it too much. We'll land when we land.

Instead, I focused on trying to figure out what my new powers were.

I tried focusing really hard, spread my hand out, switched hands, until finally, I created a small ball, that I could pick up and throw, like an actual ball.

I was playing catch with it by just throwing it up into the air and then catching it, until I threw it too high and, due to the ship being in motion, I couldn't reach it.

I eyed the ball carefully as it fell down into the ocean. If I let my eyes off, the size and transparency of the ball wouldn't allow me to find it again, so I kept my eyes on it.

Once the ball touched the surface of the ocean, it sank, and seemed to do nothing.

I was disappointed, until it created a giant splash in the water, around the size of a cannonball splash, and it rocked the ship sideways.

' _That's cool_ ,' I thought, wondering what else it could do.

I made another ball, throwing it in the air, but instead of letting it fall to the ocean, I pulled out my switchblade and popped it.

Bad idea. The force of the blast destroyed the crow's nest and sent me flying down into the deck of the ship and splintering the planks of wood.

Hearing this, Jenni rushed outside. "What the hell happened?"

I looked at her from my indentation in the deck and said, "an accident."

She looked at me incredulously. "What fucking kind of accident?" She was nearly yelling at me. "We don't even have a crows nest anymore!"

"Yea, I know. You don't have to tell me," I replied, getting up. "Jesus, fuck, that hurt," I said, trying to crack my back, but the pain was too much.

"Tell me what happened," she demanded.

I walked forward, the pain really getting to me now.

"Here, just lie down. I'll get the splinters out of your back," she ordered, and I followed.

"So, you remember I ate that fruit, right? Well, I was trying to find out what my powers are, and I made a ball, but I didn't know what it did. I made two, the first one fell into the ocean, and just rocked the ship a little bit. Then I made another, and I poked it, and what you see here are the results of that," I told her what had just happened.

"Jesus, it looks like a cannonball fell on top of you," she commented while pulling a large splinter out of my back, which caused me to wince in pain. "Suck it up, crybaby."

"Oh yea? I'd like to see you with a bunch of fucking splinters in your back," I retorted. "Hell, we could do it right now."

"Let's not do that," she responded, pulling another splinter out.

"Fuck!" I yelled in agony.

"Here, that's the last one. Now stop complaining," she said.

I got up and went inside the kitchen, where I had decided to leave all my belongings. I opened my backpack, pulled out my old clothes and my treasured shoes, and exited the kitchen.

"Jenni!" I called out. "Keep watch, I'm gonna go take a shower." I didn't know if she heard me, but I sure hope she did.

After my shower, I changed into my old clothes, which were much more comfortable than the handmade shorts and sandals I had worn for the past few years now.

I walked back outside onto the deck, where Jenni was waiting to tell me we were about to land on an island.

"Yea, I'm looking at the exact same thing you are," I sarcastically responded.

"Jeez, why are you so mean to me?" She questioned with a deceptively sad tone.

"Huh? I'm not, that's how I am with everybody," I told her. "We need a list of supplies to buy here. They'll need to range from most important to least important, cause we're broke as hell."

"Yea, I think food and a water supply is most important," Jenni said.

I agreed, and then added, "and a compass. If we need more money, I'll just rob a store."

She frowned. "That can be our last resort. Let's try and keep a low profile for now."

I ended the conversation there, and then went to tie the sails up, stopping the ship from moving. Once I was done with that, we used the waves to dock the ship, and I dropped the anchor.

I jumped off the ship, and Jenni followed right after. The island was much larger up close than it was from a distance. It had buildings all over, many of them with two stories or even more. At the heart of the island lay a huge dome, with a disco ball chained to the top of it, and a space with room for hundreds of people surrounded by all the buildings. It reminded me of Time Square New York, but a lot smaller.

Jenni was amazed by the place. She'd never seen anything like it, and I doubt anyone on her home island has either. ' _Oh Jenni, if only you'd seen my home city_ ,' I thought to myself.

"Come on, let's buy what we came here for. We can explore later," I told her, but my words fell on death ears as she was completely mesmerized by the scenery.

"Jenni," I called, forcing her to pay attention as I walked into a local bar.

I made my way up to the counter, gaining the full attention of the bartender.

"You need something?" He questioned.

"Yea, I just need to get some supplies. A drink would be nice too," I told him, careful not to attract any attention.

Of course, my efforts were for naught as Jenni unknowingly attracted the attention of two of the pirates nearby, who went up behind us.

The first pirate looked at me and asked, "are you lost kid? Why don't you let me show your friend around?"

"We don't want any problems," I said as he went behind Jenni, placed a hand on her shoulder and started to creep lower and lower.

The second pirate commented, "look, he's so scared! Just let my friend and I show her around, we'll treat her right."

I looked over at Jenni, who shuddered as the man's hand neared her ass, and then slapped his hand away.

"Oooh, feisty, aren't you?" The pirate said, angering me.

"Hey bud, your hands seem a little lost there. Might wanna keep them away from her, unless you want to lose the other eye," I said coolly, taking note of his appearance.

The man stood almost a full head taller than me, partially due to his boots and the captain's hat he wore atop his head. He was missing several teeth which had been replaced with gold teeth. He had a braided beard, leathery skin that spoke of his age and an eyepatch, whether for effect or to cover a missing eye, I didn't know.

The other pirate stood just a hair shorter, but was much larger and rounder, with a bandana tied over his head and a hook for a left hand.

"Woah now, there's no need for violence, I just want to help you out," the man whom I assumed was captain spoke in a creepy manner, one that would have any California girl filing a rape charge, as he set both hands on Jenni and dragged his dirty fingers down her arms.

Swiftly, I pulled my glock out, cocked it even though it was a semiautomatic and it was unnecessary, but it added to the effect. I then pointed it at the captains head.

Immediately after, his crewmate, whom I'm guessing is the first mate produced his own pistol and pointed it at the back of my head.

Jenni, with her powers of creation, made her own pistol and pointed it at the first mate's head in record speed.

The only one not holding a pistol was the captain.

The air was tense. Jenni spoke first. "Now, we all know the only way you both are making it out of here alive is if you drop that gun. My captain won't hesitate to pull the trigger, and I won't either. You wouldn't to die, would you?" Her words were directed towards the first mate.

Nonetheless, she noticed his finger moving dangerously close to the trigger, so her only option was to act fast.

She quickly pulled the trigger, ending the man's life right then and there.

I shrugged at the captain and said, "I told you we didn't want any problems."

"You bastard..." The now first mate-less captain muttered under his breath. "We were supposed to go to the grand line in a week!"

"Cry about it," I said, leading Jenni out of the bar.

"Hey, couldn't you just make a compass with your devil fruit?" I asked while we walked through the town.

"No, it doesn't work like that," she explained. "I have to hold the thing I wanna make before I can. But what we can do is walk into a store, I'll grab a compass and we don't buy it or anything, I'll just make one as soon as we walk out. Only difference would be in quality, but that shouldn't be an issue if we take care of it, right?"

"Right," I agreed.

We found a store near the center of the town labelled 'Gadget Store.'

' _A for creativity_ ,' I thought, and stepped inside.

"Hello, what can I do for you today?" The man over the counter said.

"Nothing, we're just looking," I said.

I turned to Jenni, who had found a compass, examined it for a second, and put it back on the shelf.

Jenni proceeded to walk out, and I glanced at the shopkeeper before following her outside.

"That might be the most awkward thing that I've ever done," she commented, and I had to agree.

"But it worked, didn't it?" I replied as she made a compass and handed it to me.

I examined it thoroughly. It seemed to work alright, so I just stuffed it in my pocket and we continued walking.

"So, food next?" I asked.

"Yes, is there anything you have in mind?"

"Actually, yea, there is. If we can find lobster tails, that'd be great," I answered, recalling a recipe I had made several years back.

Now, most people wouldn't be able to tell, but I'm actually quite the capable chef. My dad had taught me all he knew about cooking, and that's where I got most of my recipes from. Most of them are for meats, like steak, chicken, ground beef, burgers and some breakfast foods, but after my parents divorced, he wasn't there to help me cook anymore. So, one day, when my mom and my stepdad weren't home, and all we had were six lobster tails, I used what I could find in the fridge, a pound of butter, half a pound of garlic butter and then some salt and pepper to make some panfried lobster tails that came out amazing. I'm too lazy to always be making food though.

Eventually, Jenni and I made it to a market. There, we picked up a few pounds of meat, two snappers and six lobster tails.

"The total will be eight thousand berries," the shopkeeper said.

"Sorry, what?" I asked, pretending to not hear.

"Eight thousand berries, please," he repeated.

"Sure thing," I said, handing the bag to Jenni and pulling out my wallet.

I counted out the amount that I needed, and handed him the bills. He counted the amount and we left shortly after.

"That was most of our money right there," I said to Jenni as we walked away from the market. We made our way to the ship and loaded the fridge with our new food supplies.

With that, Jenni went to sleep and I stayed up on the deck of the ship until I eventually got tired and went to sleep inside.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, a pirate crew had docked and prepared to launch an attack on Mirrorball Island. This would soon be my first real battle as a pirate.

 **Also, if any of you would like the recipe to those lobster tails, tell me and I'll write it down. It really is a delicious recipe, trust me.**


	8. Chapter VI

I was awaken by the sound of heavy footsteps on the ship. I looked through the window and was caught off guard by the marine warship docked right beside me.

Quickly I got up and stood by the door, careful not to make too much noise.

I put my head against the wall, and I was able to make out words being spoken.

"We have tracked the Aldin Pirates to Mirrorball Island. Their flag is missing, but the ship is unmistakably that of the Aldin Pirates," the voice behind the door spoke.

I figured now was a good time to test out my new powers, and focused my head until I made that same ball.

I held it in my hand, waiting until they opened the door.

"Yes sir, we have boarded the ship and have prepared our forces for heavy resistance," the voice said. "Opening in three. Two. One."

Just as they opened the door, I threw the ball at the marine.

The force from the resulting blast sent him flying back and splintered the wood around the door frame.

"Man down! Requesting support, captain!" A random marine yelled into a transponder snail.

Quickly, I made another and threw it at the marine yelling into the snail, disabling him and a few marines around him.

The commotion woke Jenni up, and she immediately rushed to the room to see what was going on.

"He's very dangerous! Proceed with caution!" Another marine ordered, and they pointed their rifles at me.

"Fire!" They yelled, forcing me to to grab Jenni and dive out of the way.

This time, I tried something different.

I spread my arms out more, and focused to make another ball, then brought my arms closer together to shrink the ball.

Once the ball was the same size as the last one, I got up and tossed it towards the squad of marines. This time, the blast was much larger.

It splintered the deck and sent fragments of wood at the marines like shrapnel from a grenade. The force of it blew the hull off of the ship and rocked the ocean. Pieces of wood flew like rockets towards the marine warship, cutting through it as if it wasn't even there.

"My men!" The captain of the warship cried out. "You'll pay, filthy pirate."

"So that's your power, huh?" Jenni asked, noting the immense destruction cause by a singular attack.

"I guess so. That took a lot out of me, I might have to undergo training again."

Just then, I felt the ship start to go lower and lower. It tilted itself backwards until Jenni and I tumbled towards the back of the ship.

"Shit! Neither of us can swim!" Jenni cried out.

I pulled Jenni, along with my treasured plants, off the ground and dragged her to safety on the dock. The marine warship had also began to sink from the holes in the hull.

"You! You killed my subordinates!" The marine captain shouted, obviously directed towards me.

He stood around my height with a mostly bulky build. Atop his head was a marine hat, and draped over his shoulders was a captains coat, with justice written in kanji on the back.

"Jenni, stay back. I'll take care of him," I ordered as I took a fighting stance.

"Are you a power user?" He questioned, mantaining the angry look on his face.

"I guess so," I answered, not taking my eyes off of him.

"This may be easier than I expected. See this blade?" He asked, showing off the longsword he held. "It is coated with seastone. You don't stand a chance."

"So I just have to stay away from that sword, right?"

"You say that as if you can beat me, scum."

A confident grin flashed across my face.

"Who says I can't?" I said, and he rushed forward blade-first.

I used my vertical jump to avoid his sword and get behind him, then attempted to kick his back to knock him down, but he turned around just in the nick of time and blocked my kick with his free hand, then slashed at my leg.

I jumped back to narrowly avoid the attack. I was limited at the moment, so I went around to Jenni, picked her up and dropped her off on land.

As I turned around, the marine captain was already rushing towards me. "Focus on your opponent! Pirate scum!"

I barely had any time to avoid his attack, but once I did, I used the distance I had created to make another one of those explosive balls, and threw it at his feet.

The force sent him flying back and destroyed the dock, creating a space between the marine captain and I. ' _This is so much better than a gun_ ,' I thought, seeing how much damage I could cause.

Just then, I heard an explosion from inside the city, turned around and saw a cloud of black smoke rising from the heart of the town.

I could hear the screams of people, and shortly after saw them running for their lives.

I glanced at the marine captain, who was stuck on an isolated part of the dock and would have to swim over to get onto land.

"C'mon, let's go check that out," Jenni said, grabbing my wrist and running towards the commotion.

We saw all the people running for their lives.

"Run! The Red Beard Pirates are here!" A man yelled.

' _Red Beard Pirates? Jesus, how creative can you get?_ ' I thought.

We made our way towards the town square, where a building was lit on fire, bodies were sprawled out across the street and a man with a red beard was holding a pistol.

"Attention citizens of Mirrorball Island! This island is now under the control of the great pirate Red Beard! Anybody not willing to comply will be shot, survivors will be shot again!"

' _Disgusting_ ,' I thought, carefully eyeing him.

Red Beard was a large man. He stood at around 6'5" with a round build. He had a large, unkempt red beard, which is probably how he got the name. A red bandana was tied around the top of his head, and atop the bandana lay a captain's hat with his jolly roger, a skull with a red moustache, a captain's hat and two crossed swords behind it.

Suddenly, a random citizen stepped up. "If you want to take this island," he shouted, "you'll have to get past me first!"

The red bearded pirate looked at him and smirked. "If that's your wish, then so be it!" And he then lunged at the man.

The man blocked his first attack with nothing but his bare arms, surprising me. He was either really strong, or the attack was rereally weak.

I had to look way from the fight because just then, a random pirate slashed at me, incuring my wrath.

I made another ball with the help of my devil fruit and slammed it into his head, knocking him out and making a crater in the floor.

If we weren't in the fight before, we were now.

A group of pirates charged towards Jenni and I, forcing her to involve herself as well. She made a bo staff using her devil fruit and blocked several sword slashes at the same time, then knocked them out in an instant.

Four pirates rushed towards me, swords in the air, in a pathetic attempt to kill me.

I jumped up to avoid them, and landed on one of their heads, knocking him out and then moved to the next one, and the one after, and the one after, disabling them.

I looked back towards the man in a fight with Red Beard, and just as I looked, he was being overpowered.

Just then, the marine captain from earlier appeared and attacked me. He took one good look at the situation, and assumed I was with the Red Beard Pirates.

"Attention pirate scum! You are under arrest! Surrender now!"

"Nice try," I smirked. I made a ball, then charged at him and slammed my palm into his head, forcing the ball to explode and sending him deep into the ground and knocking him out.

The man who had just been defeated in a fight looked at me, also assumed I was with Red Beard, then gritted his teeth and muttered, "you bastard."

"Thanks," Red Beard said, "I don't know who you are, but you just made my job easier. You have a useful devil fruit, how about you join me? Your girlfriend can come along too."

"Sorry, I don't associate with bums like you," I answered.

"You son of a bitch," Red Beard muttered angrily. "I'll spare you for now, just because you helped me out there."

"Spare me? You say that as if you could kill me," I smirked, attempting to provoke him.

"Insolent brat, I'll show you the difference between us!" He yelled, and charged at me.

I used my devil fruit to make another ball, this one of the much bigger variety, and shrunk it down to the size of a tennis ball.

I waited until he was close to me, then threw the ball at him. It exploded upon contact, sending everyone in the immediate area flying and destroying several buildings in the process.

"Hey! You destroyed the town square!" the man angrily yelled.

I wasn't paying attention. "Jenni, take him out of here!"

"Yes, captain!" Just as the dirt cleared, Red Beard stood up, now very angry. I was surprised, to say the least.

"Don't let her escape! Vice-captain! Kill that woman!" Red Beard ordered, pointing at Jenni.

I noticed the man Red Beard was just talking to running towards Jenni, and I began running towards him to stop him, but I was struck in the neck by Red Beard's forearm.

"Your fight is with me, brat," he spat. He went to strike me again in the head, but I rolled out of the way, and Red Beard stuck his fist into hard concrete.

I quickly got up and went to elbow Red Beard, but he grabbed me with his other hand by the neck, lifted me up and slammed me into the ground.

"Argghhh," I growled, coughing blood.

Unbeknownst to the pirate captain, I had made another ball with my hands while he was busy slamming me, and when he went to punch me in the head, I moved my hand in the way, and he struck the ball instead, breaking his wrist and sending his bones out of his arm.

Red Beard howled in pain, seeing the bone hanging from his elbow joint and the now limp flesh that once protected it.

He released me from his grip and clutched his arm which was clearly in pain.

Just then, he gripped his sword, and cut off the now useless flesh, losing his arm.

While he did that, I had stood up. "You bastard," he said, trying to hide the pain he was in.

' _Man, this guy's tough_ ,' I thought, seeing as he wanted to continue the fight, even with one less arm.

"I'm going to kill you, then I'm going to rape your girlfriend and take over the East Blue," he growled, and with those words, he sealed his fate. I wasn't intent on leaving this guy alive.

The rest of the fight was rather one-sided. I pulled my switchblade out and rushed him.

He made one pathetic slash attempt, which I dodged with ease, and then I proceeded to stab him in the stomach, causing him immense pain. He tried pushing me back, but I followed through with another stab, and then another, and then another, and then another, until he was nothing but a bloody mess and the only evidence he was Red Beard was the hat on his head, which was now on the floor. I got up, now feeling better, but it wasn't enough. I pulled my glock out and fired round after round at his corpse until the magazine was empty.

Feeling satisfied, I stepped over his corpse, and went to go find Jenni, who had just finished knocking down Red Beard's vice captain.

My blood was rushing from adrenaline, so much that I hadn't even noticed the damage Red Beard's attacks along with my own had caused me. I collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.

Jenni, who appeared just slightly worse for wear, had taken down the vice-captain, and noticed me as soon as I had falled on the ground.

"Are you okay?" She asked, seeing the state I was in.

I had bruises on my neck from where he had choked me, my hand was completely covered in blood, and my back was in immense pain, I could've sworn it was broken.

"How's the other guy doing?" I asked, breathing heavily. "My devil fruit power takes a lot of energy."

"Yea, mine does too. He's okay, I think."

Just then, he came over to where I was. "I didn't ask to be saved," he said.

"I just admired your show of courage," I told him. "Jenni, our ship. And our new supplies."

"Yea, all thanks to those stupid marines," she said.

"Are you guys pirates?" The man said. "Sorry, I'm Melly."

"Randall," I told him from the floor. "She's Jenni. And yea, we're pirates."

"I wanted to be a pirate, but I don't think I can leave this town. I owe everything to this town, but Red Beard killed my adoptive mother."

"Come with us," I offered. "Join my crew."

"I..." he hesitated. "I can't."

Sitting here, I had a better look at Melly.

His hair was short brown, almost like mine before I was sent here, but without the fade. His skin was a tan color that complemented his dark eyes and hair. He stood around 5'8" with a lanky build, similar to Luffy's. His jawline was sharper than mine, and he reminded me of someone I used to know.

"Why not?" Jenni asked him, curious as to what was keeping him here.

"I don't know. I just feel obligated," he said. "I have to go pay respects to my mother. Sorry."

And with that, he got up and left.

"Maybe he'll join after he's done with that," I commented optimistically. "Also, good job with that guy you took down."

She beamed at my praise, and with that, I passed out.


	9. Chapter VII

Sorry for the delay. I've been busy dealing with addiction counseling for the past couple of weeks and just been generally busy. On top of that, I hit a small writers block but finally overcame it when I decided to stop eating shit today. So here's another chapter, it's shorter than usual but I hope you all enjoyed.

When I regained consciousness, I was laying in a bed in a white room. It was cold, but not too cold. I took a deep breath and immediately after said, "I want a dog."

I looked around the room. It felt empty. That might have been due to me being the only one inside the room, or due to the lack of furnishing and decoration.

I looked down and my eyes met my bandaged body. I hadn't realized it, but my hoodie had been removed from my body, and in its place were bandages covering my arms, neck and chest.

I sat up and tried to stretch but ultimately failed due to the decreased mobility of bandages compared to my hoodie.

I shivered from the cold, hugged my body to keep warm and as I did so, a man walked in.

"Ah!" He nearly yelled in surprise when he saw that I was up. "I wasn't expecting you to be awake for several hours."

"Are you a doctor?" I questioned, still shivering from the cold. "Where's my hoodie?"

"Yes, I am a doctor. And your hoodie is being washed right now. It was stained with blood so we're washing it to get rid of any biohazards."

"Hmm. Fair enough. Join my crew."

"No," he answered without hesitation.

"It was worth a shot."

He was unamused. He tossed me a white t-shirt and said, "your friends are outside."

I hastily put on the t-shirt and made my way to the door. As soon as I opened it, I was blinded by the bright light of the sun.

I shaded my eyes with my hand and walked outside, closing the door behind me.

The streets were mostly empty. I was fairly close to the town square so I saw where they had barricaded the destroyed buildings and were making an attempt to clean the rubble, albeit it didn't seem like they were making much progress.

'The doctor told me they were outside. Now where are they?' I wondered as I wandered around. Technically, he hadn't lied, but after walking around for a good ten minutes, frustration started to set in.

Just when I was about to say fuck it and light up a joint, Jenni walked around the corner with Melly right beside her.

I looked at the joint, thought, 'this can wait,' and got up.

"Captain!" She exclaimed, running up to me. Then, she changed her expression to a confused one, and said, "I thought you weren't going to be awake for some time?"

I shrugged and said, "the doctor said the same thing."

"Well, that's not important. The citizens wanted to wait until you woke up to thank you," Jenni informed me.

Now, it was my turn to wear a puzzled expression. "Thank me? Why?"

Melly spoke up. "Well, you did sort of save the entire town. No big deal, right?" he asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Exactly, it's not that important," I agreed, not sensing the sarcasm in his voice.

"Are you stupid? It's a huge deal!" He snapped.

"I just beat up some pirates, saving the island was unplanned," I explained. "Tell them if they wanted to thank me, I'm in need of a new ship. I'm a pirate, not some kind of idol."

"Beat up is kind of an understatement," Melly commented, but his words fell on deaf ears.

I turned to Jenni, then enthusiastically voiced my thoughts from earlier. "Let's get a dog!"

To that, she smacked me upside the head and yelled, "Are you stupid? We're broke!"

"So? We can just steal one. It's not like we aren't already criminals."

"That's not the point," she said with a hint of annoyance.

"Whatever, I'm getting a dog on the next island and there's nothing you can do to stop me," I said stubbornly.

"You're too much."

We walked over to a local restaurant to eat lunch while I waited for my hoodie to finish getting washed.

While we waited for our food, Jenni produced a map of the East Blue.

Melly observed the map for a few seconds then put his finger on Mirrorball Island. "So we're here. The Polestar Islands would be our next location, where Loguetown is. There, we would stock up on supplies and go to Reverse Mountain, and enter the Grand Line."

"Are you a navigator?" Jenni asked.

"Well, I do know a thing or two about navigation," he humbly replied.

"That's a coincidence. Neither of us know anything about navigation, so having you on our crew would be a big help," she said.

"Speak for yourself. I at least know how to tell east from west," I cut in.

"Shut up."

Our food came after a few more minutes of waiting, and we all happily ate. I finished first, since I hadn't eaten in over a day, or so they said, and then ordered more.

The plates kept piling up, until finally I was full. I looked at the table and saw several plates stacked on top of each other. I hadn't even realized it, but in less than 30 minutes I had eaten a Luffy-sized serving.

"Sorry about my captain, he's kind of hungry," Jenni told the waitress.

She smiled and happily responded, "everything is on the house for our saviors. It's the least we could do."

Is that what they were calling us? Either way, I didn't care. Better for us.

I retrieved my hoodie and from there, we made our way to the docks where my plants were.

A crowd awaited us at the docks. As soon as they saw us, they began to cheer as loud as they can, surprising us, and slightly irritating me.

"We owe you our lives for saving the town. We can never hope to repay you, but we hope you will gracefully accept this gift from us instead," one of the townspeople said, and with that, they split apart to reveal a long and sleek ship, which lessened my irritation.

"Our own ship!" Jenni cried out in excitement. Melly smirked at the sight while I just looked on in disbelief.

Never in my life would I have expected anything like this. In my previous life, nobody did each other any favors. My own gang wouldn't even give me anything for my birthday. Not that I cared, because I found it good enough to be able to get high and spend time with my closest friends.

We boarded the ship not long after that, and Jenni and Melly waved at the townspeople as we set off. Jenni stopped waving after a short period of time, but Melly didn't stop waving until he couldn't even see the island anymore.

Satisfied, Melly made his way to the wheel where he would stand until we reached Loguetown.

I climbed up to the crow's nest and lit one up, savoring the taste and enjoying the feeling of the mellow yet energetic high that could only be brought on by a sativa-dominant hybrid strain.

With that, I closed my eyes and took a nap.


	10. Chapter VIII

When I came to, we still hadn't reached Loguetown and I was regretably sober.

I couldn't fix that first problem, but I sure as hell could fix the second one. So, I did.

Afterwards, I decided to find out what else my new devil fruit power could do. So far, I was able to make extremely destructive balls of death. They felt like balloons, but the film that constructed it was much more sensitive and I don't know any balloons that could destroy a city block. Well, short of a balloon filled with C4, but C4 was much heavier than the balls that my devil fruit could make. No, what my devil fruit seemed to do was pressurize the atmosphere immensely and release it in a quick burst like an explosion, just without the flames.

My head was hurting from all this thinking. I made another ball and eyed it. It seemed harmless, but as my fight with those pirates whose names I had forgotten already had experienced first-hand, it was no toy.

I thought of a name for my most basic attack, and considered several names ranging from _Death Ball_ to _Small Killer Ball of Death,_ but considering the nature of the attack, I settled on _Pressure Ball_.

I threw my pressure ball out to sea, and made the same large ball as before and then compressed it to the size of the pressure ball. I called this one _Pressure Bomb,_ considering the fact I destroyed a city block with it. Even though this and the pressure ball looked exactly the same, this one was considerably heavier, and held much more power. I threw this one out as far as I could to not affect the ships course. Thankfully, I threw it far enough where we only recieved waves that slightly rocked the ship.

Then, I made a similar one to the pressure bomb, only midsized, and did the same process as before, compressing it to the size of a tennis ball. This one I named _Pressure Cannon_. I had used this one in my fight with the marines when I destroyed our old ship and sank the marine ship with the shrapnel from our ship.

I then thought about more attacks, before rushing to Jenni and requesting she made me a pipe.

"Why?" she questioned, unsure of what I was to do with it.

"Science experiment," I told her.

When she completed my request, she went out to watch what I would do. I made a small pressure ball with my hands that would fit in one end of the pipe.

I set it on the ground and asked for a ball that would fit into the pipe with almost no room to move. In other words, a perfect fit. After some trial and error, she found that a golf ball would fit perfectly into the pipe.

I dropped the ball into the pipe and immediately after covered my ears. If my idea worked, it would be nearly deafening.

And it worked. The second the ball made contact, it shot into the air at blinding speeds and made a loud pop.

I grinned, then made another large ball and compressed it to the size of that golf ball if just a little bit larger to seal in the pipe.

I had Jenni make another golf ball, and this time held up the pipe at a slight incline facing away from the ship. I covered the other end with my hand and had Jenni put the ball inside the pipe. I felt it roll down and knew exactly when it would make contact.

When it did, the recoil nearly sent me overboard. If not for the railing, I could have drowned.

I looked inside, but didn't see a ball inside, signaling that it had been sent flying.

 **Marine Base, somewhere in the East Blue** Two pirate brothers were preparing to raid a marine base inside their ship. Their ship was a thick walled and heavily armored warship, which they would use to conquer their enemies and eventually the Grand Line. However, God had other plans.

As they discussed the plan to use stolen marine uniforms to infiltrate the base and then kill everyone inside, a golf ball penetrated the thick armor of the ship and penetrated the head of one of the brothers while the other was turned away, making a large entry hole in his head and taking his brain, blood and bits of his now shattered skull with it, splattering all over the walls of the ship and making him fall with a _thud_.

His brother turned around to see what caused the sound, and when he saw his brothers mutilated head, his eyes went wide, and he started to cry, and then screamed like a little girl.

 **Just seconds after, inside the marine base** A marine was training the future generation, using any means necessary to make sure they turn out strong and ready to fight against the evil of pirates, as he had described.

He was in the middle of scolding one of the recruits when suddenly, a golf ball broke through the window which gave a view of the outside and hit his head so hard, that there was a ball shaped dent in it and his eyes were bulging out, leaking blood. The ball then bounced around the room, causing some more minor damage before landing on some training mats and staining it with the blood of a notorious pirate and their marine captain.

Every single marine stopped their training and stared at their captain, some getting sick and others passing out. The remaining ones were brought to their knees and started crying.

 **Back with Randall**

"Eh, it takes too long to use it. A nice party trick, but it would get me killed in a real battle. Maybe if I'm too far. It could be like our combo move or something," he laughed. "Now, by any chance, can you make me a couple of lighters?"

"Science experiment?" she asked while making several gas lighters.

I nodded, then asked that she pressed down on all of them but didn't light them. I don't know how she did it, but she pressed down the buttons on all of them at the same time.

I made a ball right above the gas of the lighters, and allowed it to fill up with the gas of the lighters, turning the ball a yellowish hue. Once the gas of the lighters ran out, I compressed the ball. This time it was much harder, as the gas turned to liquid when compressed to a degree like that, but I managed, and this time it was much heavier than just the air one.

It also confirmed my theory. My fruit gave me the ability to compress anything. I wasn't sure about anything, but it was a devil fruit power, so that couldn't have been too much of a stretch.

I didn't know what to do with the ball so I threw it to the sea and decided to shoot at it. I pulled my glock out, replaced the magazine and shot it, making a huge explosion that rocked the boat sideways and sent heat waves along with a defeaning sound our way. It probably even gave away our location.

Melly rushed over to Jenni and I, curious about the explosion, and I had to explain to him that I caused the explosion.

Soon after, I stopped playing with my devil fruit and focused on watching for Loguetown.

Up in the crow's nest, I had a playful idea. I lit a joint up and used my devil fruit power to take the smoke from the joint.

In less than a minute, the entire joint had run out and the ball was now filled with thick white smoke with a yellowish tint.

I brought the smoke ball to my mouth, inhaled as much as I could from it and it was still thick. I coughed heavily as my lungs took in the smoke and dropped the ball, making it pop and coating the ship in thick white smoke that could get a grown man fucked up in a couple seconds.

"Randall! What the fuck happened? There's a fucking _cloud_ on the ship!" Melly yelled furiously.

"I ain't got a clue what you talkin bout," I mumbled with my signature Miami accent.

As soon as I spotted Loguetown, I called out, but didn't recieve a response. Figuring something was up, I made my way down the ladder and went to Melly.

Melly's eyes were bloodshot red, giving me the impression he was high. _'I wonder whose fault that is_

"You smoke dog?" I asked, being a smartass.

"I'm hungry," he replied, completely ignoring my question and ending with a giggle fit.

"Yea, me too. I saw Loguetown already."

"Loguetown," he mimicked, taking a moment to think. "What's that?"

"Aight, dog, you fried."

"What did I fry?" He asked, almost as if trying to beat me at my own game.

I clicked my tongue in annoyance before throwing him off the wheel and ordering him to take a nap.

It took him several tries before he could find the place where he would bunk, and I took over the helm.

Somehow, I managed to dock the ship with my rather lackluster skills and lack of experience, but I did so without even crashing. Needless to say, I was quite proud of myself.

"Jenni!" I called, not expecting an answer.

No answer. Exactly as I suspected, she was dead asleep. ' _I should probably do the same,_ ' I thought, and proceeded to lie down against the wall and fall asleep.

I knew it was a good idea to not paint a Jolly Roger yet. Well, it wasn't as much planning ahead as it was me not knowing the first thing about drawing. Either way, if I had drawn a Jolly Roger, poorly or not, we'd have probably been invaded over the few hours I spent asleep.

I tasked Melly with guarding the ship while Jenni and I went to gather supplies for our journey.

"I need you to gather food for the trip, and other basic supplies. Shouldn't be too hard, right?" I told Jenni.

"Of course. Anything specific you'd like?" she questioned.

"Um... yea, actually. Get as much meat as you can, doesn't matter what cuts they are. Dog treats, and lots of dog food. We'll need it," I threw her a wink and then added, "I want to get some personal items."

She carried a puzzled look on her face, and I mumbled, "and a dog," when she turned around.


	11. Chapter IX

I had been exploring Loguetown and the stores inside for some time when I found something that I immediately knew I had to have.

It was a white paisley bandana. Nothing special to anybody else, but it brought back memories to me.

In my previous life, my gang and I all repped white and black. We called them our flags, but I had lost mine one day when my best friend was stabbed in the tricep and I offered it to cut off circulation and it had got covered in blood. The hospital threw it away, but personally I would've like to keep it.

If I were to have another one, it would serve to symbolize the people I left behind. A part of me still regretted that, but I was working through it. I was never one to hold regrets, but leaving the only people I could ever trust put a hole in my heart that might never heal. A new flag might help me there.

As I was staring at the bandana, the store clerk noticed me and asked if I was interested in anything I saw. Once, I asked him how much the bandana would be, he gave an outrageous price that I most definitely could not afford. Outrageous being around 500 beli, which might seem cheap to anyone else, but I have 0 beli, so the price seemed unfair.

Thankfully, I wasn't one to abide by the law so I diverted his attention by pointing at something in the back of the store and practically jumping out the door.

Just my luck, he didn't even try to chase after me. Not that he could've kept up, but it would've attracted unnecessary attention.

As I walked away from the area, I saw a group of marines running in the direction of the shop I just stole from. Apparently, there was a marine base in Loguetown.

I then made my way to the marketplace, where I ran into Jenni. At that point, I had already tied the flag around my bicep about an inch above my elbow, like I always used to wear it. I felt better already.

"Yo, Jenni! You got any bacon?"

"Actually, I do," she answered, tossing me a bag of precooked bacon strips.

I thanked her for them, and went on my way. I wandered around for a little, searching for some kind of pet store.

It took me some time, but I eventually found a store where I could get myself the dog that I'd been wanting for some time.

I opened the door and was immediately greeted by the owner of the store.

"Welcome, are you in need of assistance?" He asked with a warm smile that almost made me feel guilty for what I was about to do.

I grabbed a strip of bacon from the back and took a bite before answering, "yea, I'm looking for a dog."

"Any particular breed that you would like?"

"Um, yea, I want a big dog," I answered.

"We do have a dog that grows that big, but he's been here for a while now, and he's almost a year old. Would you like to see him?"

I nodded, secretly planning how I would go about this. In my head, I was thinking about how I would see the dog, pull some bacon out and lure him outside before making an escape.

They let him out before I could finish my planning, and I immediately fell in love. He was the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. He was of a stocky build, with a wide chest, long back and thick neck. His legs were thick with large, heavy paws supporting his weight. He wore a medium length coat with a black base color and rust coloring his paws, chest and throat, along with two spots above his eyes. His chest also sported a white spot of hair that looked out of place, but added personality nonetheless.

He came up to me, hanging his tail low and wagging it along the way. Immediately, he pressed his paws against me and started wagging his tail harder. I pet his head and he jumped on top of me, almost knocking me down. Without a doubt, if he was fully grown, I would've been on the ground right now. I knew this was the dog I had to have.

He seemed to take a liking to me, and I obviously mirrored the feeling.

"I think he likes you," the store owner commented, noting his affection.

"So, how much for him?" I inquired, hoping it wouldn't be too high. I didn't have the heart to steal this dog from him at this point.

"Honestly, we've been trying to sell him for almost a year. He barks and tries to get at everyone that comes in, but he stayed calm around you. We were actually ordered to put him down if he wasn't sold by his birthday next month, but since I don't want to do that, you can take him free of charge."

"Really?!" I smiled at the store owner, and then at the dog who wagged his tail even harder than before.

And so, I took my new dog out of the store with me, and decided upon the name Sake after an old dog that I had, who was taken by the pound while I was in the process of moving to another house. We had come back to get him, and when we got there, our dog was gone. I cried that day.

I met up with Jenni at the execution platform, where she met my new dog, who growled at her but I told him she was a friend, so he warmed up to her.

"You! I've been looking for you for some time now!" A man, tall and skinny with a top hat and a weird rainbow suit called me out from atop the execution platform.

Suddenly, Jenni and I were surrounded by a group of men in cloaks.

"And why is that?" I pondered, ready to defend myself if need be.

"You killed my brother," he growled, jumping off the platform and landing in front of me.

I signaled Sake to go with Jenni, and then whispered into her ear, "go to the ship, I'll meet you over there."

She nodded with understanding, and turned around to leave before being cornered by more cloaked men.

"Pressure Cannon!" I called out, clearing out a path for them.

"After her! And kill the mutt!" the man in the top hat ordered some of his men, while the others stayed with their captain.

"Who was your brother?" I asked, not caring but asking to see if I could buy more time.

"How could you forget? His name was Red Beard, one of the most notorious pirates in the East!"

' _Oh, yea, that guy_ ,' remembering his comment that made my blood boil. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell."

He grew a tick mark on his forehead. "I'm going to kill you slowly, and torture everyone you care about."

Ignoring his statement, I said, "oh, yea its coming back to me now. You should've seen his face."

He was growing visibly more annoyed, and I shuddered at the thought of his bloodied body, continuing, "had so many holes in it it might as well have been swiss cheese. He smelled bad too. So do you. Did your parents not teach you how to shower? Do you even know what a shower is?"

At this point, my only goal was to get under his skin.

His fingers started to secrete a white liquid with a noxious odor, one that I could immediately recognize as superglue. If so, I had to make sure to stay away from him.

Before I could jump away from him to keep my distance, two of his henchmen grabbed my arms and held me in place so he could glue my mouth shut.

"Man, that's a shitty power. You probably get zero pussy," I said, trying to hold back laughter.

Just as he went to glue my lips shut, I made a pressure ball and threw it to the ground, creating a blast that forced the two men to release me from their hold. I could only hope that Jenni made it away. I know she could hold her own in a fight, that's why she's the first mate, but I just didn't want her getting caught up in any of the damage my power causes.

My head went back to the situation at hand. "Pressure Bomb!" I called out, attempting to end this fight as soon as possible.

Thankfully, there weren't many people in the area, or there would have been more casualties than just this man's crew members.

Just as the top hat man and I were getting ready to go all out, we were approached by a group of marines, the leader being one with white hair and a cigar in his mouth and his right-hand man, err, woman, a swordsman with short navy blue hair and glasses.

I never could seem to catch a break.

"White Blow!" The captain yelled out, sending a trail of smoke behind a fist towards me.

Thankfully, my devil fruit had prepared me for things like this. I used it to compress his smoke, rendering his attack useless, before throwing the pressurized smoke bomb on the ground, covering the area wth a thick layer of smoke. It took the marine captain some time before he could gather himself, and he made sure to use extra caution when approaching me.

I figured I made a point, so I released a Pressure Ball on my current enemy.

The force sent him back into a group of marines. At that point, they were outnumbering me by hundreds, so I created up an attack on the fly. First, I pressurized a large ball, then several marble-sized balls and encased them into another layer of film. In my head, the smaller balls would act as shrapnel and get dispersed by the large one, taking out as many enemies as I could so I could make an escape.

In reality, it was much more devastating than that.

"Pressure..." I thought for a bit, before deciding on "Grenade!"

I threw it down at the feet of a marine in a large group. The resulting blast massacred a good 20 marines and injured a whole lot more. The buildings, however, were where all the destruction lay. The attack leveled many small isolated buildings, cracked the walls of larger, more structurally sound buildings and, without my knowing, freed an entire jail cell block.

The marines were in a trance, in awe at the destruction. It was amazing, the level of destruction a single attack could do. Now if only I had been a marine instead of a pirate.

Smoker snapped out of his trance first and chased after me.

He caught up to me in record time using his smoke powers. I only just managed to turn around to avoid a deadly blow from his jitte.

"Hold up there buddy, don't get too carried away there. I just shut your first attack down," I cockily told him...

He caught me lacking, however. His jitte had a seastone tip, which instantly sapped my power, and he pinned me down in an instant.

I mustered up what little strength I still had to try to kick Captain Smoker from under him, but to no avail.

If not for my savior, I probably would have died. The man somehow kicked smoker ftom the side, knocking him off me.

I immediately got up, alerted to him and in a fighting stance.

"Ease up, captain. I'm just returning the favor," the man said.

He stood about 6'2" with a lean build and tattoos littering his body. His hair was jet black and hung from his head in dreads. His skin complexion was similar to mine. He had a light stubble adorning his face. The one thing that stood out most to me was the tattoo behind his ear, a tragedy mask. No comedy mask to go along with it, just a tragedy mask. It struck me as strange, but I didn't think anything of it.

"Captain?" I questioned. "You got the wrong guy. And what favor?"

"No, I think I got the right guy. You freed my sister and I from jail. It's only fair I join up with you," he pushed.

"Oh, that was an accident. You're free to go," I told him.

"You don't understand, we have nowhere else to go. I'll die out at sea if you don't take me under your flag."

"I'll think about it. For now, how did you manage to kick that marine? I thought he was impermeable."

He tapped on his leg, making a metallic sound. "I have a prosthetic. And the shin is made out of seastone. It cost me a leg to have it made."

"Oh. Haha. I get it," I said, not amused by what I thought was a joke.

"It wasn't a joke. I gave up my leg to have an advantage against devil fruit users," he said solemnly.

"You should keep your eyes on your enemy!" Smoker yelled, throwing out an attack, which I narrowly dodged.

He also dodged the attack, ignored the marine and spoke to me. "So, how about we fight together. It'll be good for you to see what I can do. My name is-"

"White Blow!" Smoker interrupted, going after me.

"Supercharger!" I called out, taking his smoke in a ball, and compressing it. I named the attack Supercharger because it sounded better than air compressor, and that's technically what a supercharger does; compress air. "Smoke Bomb!"

I threw the ball of smoke away from myself, angering Smoker, and thoroughly impressing the tattooed man.

"Like I was saying, my name is Booth."

"Randall," I replied, giving him a nod. "Now let's get outta here before more marines show up."

"Yes, captain," he agreed, and we made our way to the docks.

As we neared the docks, a woman appeared out of nowhere. She jumped on my back, kissed my ear and chuckled.

"You taste salty, captain," she informed me.

"Good to know, but I'm not your captain," I replied.

"Nonsense, of course you're my captain! Why else would my brother be with you?"

' _Brother? Was she talking about Booth?_ ' I thought.

"Get off of me," I ordered sternly, and she complied. I got a better look at her. Her hair was the same jet black, but that's where the similarities (mostly) ended. Her long black hair was held in a high ponytail with bangs covering her forehead. Her skin was pale white, her eyes pale blue like the daytime sky, and she stood around 5'7" tall. The only other similarity was the matching tattoo behind the opposite ear to Booth's. But it wasn't realky matching. It was the comedy mask, which solved the puzzle from earlier. Maybe it had to do with their personalities. From what I had seen, Booth was stern and serious, but she was giddy and playful.

"So, are we joining your crew or not?" she asked impatiently with puppy eyes. "I'm Mayra, by the way."

I took a deep breath. "Fine," I finally caved, allowing them to join. Mayra beamed with happiness and jumped on top of me, showering my cheeks with kisses.

Booth had to pull her off of me. Not like I cared, it was just unorthodox. "Sorry about her, she's not usually like this. She's just excited to be out of jail."

"Wait, you both were in jail? What'd you do?" I wondered aloud.

"Well, we only met in jail. She was transferred here from Shellstown, because it was overcrowded, or so they told her. In reality, we were both scheduled for execution. If not for you, we'd be getting hanged in a few months."

"Then how are you two siblings?" He hadn't answered my question, but he knew what I meant, and he probably didn't feel like talking about it, so I didn't push any more.

"We got matching tattoos to show that we are. We're not related by blood, but we don't need to be to be bonded by sibling love," she chimed in all happily.

"Yea, I can understand that," I said, thinking back to Luffy, who only became my brother right before I left.

As we walked to the docks, feeling satisfied with the day, not one word was spoken, but nothing needed to be said.

"Randall!" Jenni called from the ship. Sake was right beside her, wagging his tail and barking. Then she noticed Booth and Mayra. "Who're these two?"

I introduced them both, and welcomed them to the ship.

Booth noticed our Jolly Roger, or lack thereof, and offered to paint it for us.

"You're an artist?" I asked.

"A tattoo artist, but yea," he told.

"Cool, I'll leave it up to you then. I'm trusting you."

"Any idea of what you want?"

"Surprise me," I said before walking off to see Sake, who Mayra was playing with.

"Good boy!" she praised after he caught a treat she had thrown just seconds earlier.

"His name is Sake," I told her.

"Good Sake!" she followed up.

I snapped my fingers, and he immediately turned to me, earning a pout from Mayra.

I then went to Melly, who was at the helm, steering the ship.

"What's up Captain?"

"Nothing much, just checking up on everybody. Booth is working on our Jolly Roger right now, so we'll be a proper pirate crew beforr reaching reverse mountain."

"That's great! I feel we have a capable crew that has a shot at taking over the Grand Line," he commented.

"Yea? I feel the same way. Even Sake could probably hold his own in a fight."

"Imagine he gets a bounty," Melly laughed.

I snorted. "You really think they'd give a dog a bounty?"

"Well you never know with these marines. They're crazy."

"They're crackheads," I joked, making Melly burst out in laughter.

"Well, I'm gonna go talk to Jenni, see how she's holding up and we might even throw a party to celebrate the birth of our crew."

"Sounds fun," he said, and I agreed.

I found Jenni at the front of the ship, leaning over the railing and watching the sun set.

I leaned over the railing next to her, not saying anything until she broke the silence by saying, "It's beautiful, isn't it? I always loved sunsets, even when I was a part of the Aldin Pirates."

There was a hint of pain in her voice, which hurt me as a captain more than she could have possibly known.

"But I'm free now, and I'm happier than ever to be able to watch the sunset with you, as a part of this crew," she cracked a reassuring smile, and we watched the sunset until it was over, and then I spoke up. "Do you wanna throw a party to celebrate the birth of our crew and our voyage into the Grand Line?"

"I'd love that," she answered.

"You guys are throwing a party? Oh, let me make the food!"

"How long have you been standing there? And you can cook?"

"Only the whole time. And yea! I used to run a restaurant until some dine and dashers ate up my entire food supply and then didn't pay for anything, so I slaughtered them."

"You said that too easily!" Jenni barked, and then turned to me, saying "captain, I don't trust her."

I chuckled. "Relax, she's not gonna bite, ain't that right, Mayra? At least she's on our side."

"Nope!" She grinned innocently.

Soon, Booth completed our Jolly roger. It was a grinning Jolly Roger with two bones crossed behind it, one with a white flag tied around the end. In the jaws of the skull was a gold chain reminiscient of mine. Needless to say, I was proud of him.

In honor of the birth of our crew, the White Flag Pirates, we threw a party for the ages.

 **Thank you guys so much for the reviews and all the favorites and bookmarks. I don't think I've ever recieved such positivity. Sorry I don't respond to them, but just know that I read them all, and love every single one of you. Hope you all enjoyed, next chapter will be the voyage into the Grand Line and the first arc.**


	12. Chapter X

The ride up Reverse Mountain was surprisingly fast. Melly had to use extreme precision to make sure we didn't crash the ship.

Every day, my crew proved themselves to be more and more capable. Still, no amount of navigational know-how could prepare us for the speedy ride back down Reverse Mountain, and into the Grand Line.

If the ride up was a Ferrari coming off a hard turn on a track, the ride down was an F1 accelerating right off a u-turn. In other words, crashing was nearly inevitable.

If not for my devil fruit, we'd be at the bottom of the ocean, further proving reason for the pirate's graveyard nickname.

"Captain!" Jenni called urgently. "Have you read the paper?"

"No, should I have?" I wondered.

"Well, it's kind of a big deal," she answered, then passed me the newspaper along with all the new bounty posters.

The front page had a picture of 'Fire Fist' Ace, with a bounty increase to 350 million beli, and a newspaper article on him joining up with the Whitebeard Pirates, but I had a feeling that wasn't what she was so worried about.

I flipped the pages over until finally, I saw an article about me, with pictures of the destruction at Loguetown.

 **'Rookie Pirate in the East Blue Destroys Loguetown and Death Row, then Escapes Marine Captain Smoker'**

On the back of the article was my poster, which showcased a picture of me compressing the atmosphere into a ball with a hardened pair of eyes, the kind that showed independence.

 **Wanted Dead or Alive**

 **'White Flag' Randall**

 **25,000,000 beli**

"Woah, that's the highest bounty in the East right now! That's amazing!" I boasted.

"No, you retard! That's terrible. That means you'll be targeted more in the Grand Line!" Jenni scolded.

"And then I'll deal with them, no biggie."

"We're dead..." she muttered while walking away, dejected.

"Guys! We have an emergency!" Melly yelled with a worried tone. "The compass! It's broken!"

"More importantly," I commented, "did anyone else see the huge whale back there?"

"How is that important?!" Melly barked.

"Because there's nothing we can do about it. If anything, we'll just have to buy another compass at the next island. Only problem would be getting there."

Figuring we could do nothing else, we drifted for what seemed like hours until we spotted an island with a small town.

There wasn't much to it, just some large houses, a marketplace and several farms. We docked by the beach next to some fishing boats, and Melly, and I along with Sake jumped off the ship, later being joined by Mayra who wanted an adventure.

"So, where exactly are we going Captain?" asked Melly.

"I don't know, you're the navigator," I responded, shrugging.

"Well, we're only here for information, so I don't want you to cause any trouble. After all, it seems to flock to you."

"Hey, it's not my fault. I don't deliberately go out of my way to beat a couple marine captains or pirates or anything. It just happens."

"Well, just don't cause any problems."

"What about me? Can I cause trouble?" Mayra asked with puppy eyes.

"No, only I can," I responded.

"You're so mean, Captain," she pouted.

"No! None of you can cause problems! Hell, you should've stayed on the ship so nobody notices you and tries to kill you for that bounty," Melly stated.

"Woah, Captain, you have a bounty? How much is it?" Mayra excitedly questioned.

"25 million," I boasted proudly.

"That's amazing!" She exclaimed.

"I know, right!"

A tick mark grew on Melly's forehead. "No, it's not! We'll be targeted even more now!" he scolded.

Just then, Sake growled at something, taking our attention off of each other and looking at him. We paused. I knelt down, and asked him, "what's wrong boy? What do you see?"

Just then, he started barking, and ran after something, no, _someone_ , who scrambled to his feet and ran away from a spot in the crops.

"Sake!" I called, forcing him to turn his attention from the runner back to me. "Ignore him."

We continued on our way to the market, and I commented, "Well, at least we know they're spying on us. So don't blame me if I cause any trouble."

"Fine, you're off the hook just this once, just don't get us killed or captured."

We walked the rest of the way in silence, before finding a bar that we entered.

We made our way up to the counter, earning stares from everyone inside. I wore a hardened expression, to show I wasn't one to be messed with. Sake hung his head low and his tail low, showing that he won't hesitate to attack anybody, should he have to.

Years of hanging out on the streets trained me to perfect that look. There, you don't so much as look at someone without them assuming you want a fight. I guessed the same principle applies here.

"Hey, barkeep," Melly called. "Do you know where I could get a new compass? Mine is broken."

The bartender started chuckling, and then broke into full on howling laughter, earning stares from the people inside the bar.

I heard some people whispering, "did you hear that? He doesn't know a thing about the Grand Line!"

"And that kid he's with has a 25 million beli bounty? He can't be too tough," they whispered. I ignored it, mostly cause I was confident in my own abilities.

"You don't use compasses here in the Grand Line. you use log poses. They point to the next island in sequence after it sets on the island you're on. This island takes just a couple hours to set, but it's not the same for every island," the bartender informed.

"Hey, barkeep? Why are you giving them that information? They won't last more than a couple days in the Grand Line," a random mused, causing his buddies to howl in laughter.

"Why do _you_ care, fatass?" Mayra asked with a provoking tone.

"You bitch! I'm going to kill you!" He yelled, and jumped up from his chair, drawing a cutlass to attack.

The pirates watched on as he lunged at her, and as she dodged. She grabbed the chair he was sitting on by the back and slammed it on his back, splintering him and breaking it apart in the process. She then dropped the broken chair, and he got back up almost immediately and slashed at her neck. She ducked to avoid decapitation and picked up a leg from the broken chair that had a rusty nail sticking up out of the end where it attached to the seat, and used it to stab his thigh while he was turning back around.

He delivered a piercing yelp, followed by a deafening scream of pain, where it seemed as if it took his mind a little bit to catch up with his nerves.

Immediately, the rest of the pirates stood up, ready to defend their honor.

Their presumed captain, based on the hat and coat he was wearing along with the jewlry he wore, immediately sprung into action. "You'll pay for hurting my crewmate, bitch!"

He transformed into an oversized pitbull as he cut through the air, his target being Mayra. However, just as he was getting ready to pounce on her, a blur passed by in front of everyone, and locked onto his neck. The attacker was Sake, who saw the opportunity to fight against another dog and jumped on it, literally.

Sake's jaws locked onto the oversized pit bull's neck, and he violently shook his head, shaking him like an oversized chew toy and stretching the holes his teeth made in the pit bull's throat.

The rest of the pirates were attacking Mayra and Melly, who were each holding their own. Mayra was blocking hits and disarming pirates with the leg of the chair she broke earlier, while Melly had his hands full catching fists in the air so he could proceed to sweep their feet. All in all, the fight was going in our favor.

Finally, Sake let go, leaving a barely breathing pit bull pirate captain to death.

"You mangy mutt! I'll fucking kill you!" His right hand man yelled, slipping on a pair of spiked brass knuckles, getting ready to attack Sake.

Seeing this, I intercepted before his fist could touch down on my dog, and took the full force of a pirate's spiked brass knuckles straight into my leg.

I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore the pain, and muttered through my teeth, "pressure cannon...!"

I used my palm to push the ball into his chin, knocking him out instantly and throwing him back a few feet.

The rest of the pirates realized they were outmatched, and were forced to end their attack and retreat, carrying their bloody captain and first mate out the door. As they hurried out of the bar, one of the crew members yelled, "we'll make you pay for this! We're the Lockjaw Pirates! Remember the name!"

Once they left, Mayra turned her attention to my wound. "Are you okay Captain?"

The blood was really pouring out now. I had kicked my leg forward to keep the blood from pouring onto my beloved shoes.

Mayra took off her white long sleeve polo to reveal a black lace bra, which would have been an amazing sight if not for more pressing issues at hand.

She tied her shirt around my leg to cut off blood circulation, staining it in the process but also slowing the bleeding in the process.

It hurt to walk, but I could still walk. Those spikes had each been almost an inch in length, which, if not for my muscle, could have done a lot more damage.

Mayra, Sake and I walked back to the ship, while I tasked Melly with buying a log pose.

Once we got back to the ship, Jenni took a look at the wound. "What happened? It wouldn't have anything to do with those pirates we saw earlier, would it?"

"Depends," I answered. "Were they carrying two people in a rush?"

"Yea, they were in a rush. I saw their captain in the newspaper this morning. He had a bounty of 27 million beli. You took him out?"

"No," I replied, pointing down at Sake. "He did."

She wore a surprised expression on her face. "The... the dog..." she seemed out of touch, which made me laugh, and I grinned proudly.

"Yup!"

She nearly fainted.

"Anyways," she started, "you should see a doctor about those." She was referring to the holes in my calf muscle, which I just laughed off.

"It'll be fine," I said. It wouldn't.

When Melly returned, we set sail. The log pose he acquired had already set due to being on the island for much longer than it needed to be.

I had been lying down on my bed, stoned to the bone to ease the pain, and eventually, I drifted to sleep.


	13. Chapter XI

When I came to, we were still en route to the next island. With no map, we didn't know what the next island was, but that just made for more of an adventure.

I had taken my free time to train, as I felt I had been slacking recently, even though I really hadn't been. I worked on my martial arts form, perfecting everything from my stance to just a simple punch.

I wasn't particularly adept at martial arts, because I was never taught formally, but my self-taught martial arts, paired with my devil fruit still made for quite the combo.

"One, two, one, two," I repeated under my breath, taking my fist from the guard position every one to the extended position every two. I repeated this over a hundred times, trying to work out any kinks in my form. It'd be much more helpful if I could be trained by a martial arts master, but alas, I didn't know anyone.

I switched from my right hand to my left, and repeated it another hundred or so times, then moved on to kicks and then eventually took off my hoodie and shoes to avoid creasing them and started doing push-ups.

My first set was 50 push-ups, and I repeated six times for a total of 300 push-ups, taking only short breaks between sets. Then, I moved on to sit-ups, repeating the same process I did with the push-ups.

I then found a spot that I used for pull-ups and chin-ups, doing 50 of each. I took a short break, had Mayra cook me a bowl of chicken and an egg on a bowl of rice, which I devoured, and then went back to training.

This time, Sake joined me, though I wasn't exactly sure for what.

When I returned to working on my martial arts form, Sake would bark at every punch I threw. This went on for ten minutes before a lightbulb lit up in my head.

I snapped my fingers above his head, making him stand up on his hind legs because he thought I had food. He stood almost 5' tall when he stood on his hind legs. He was quite a large dog for being only a year old at most.

I then went into my fighting position, legs spread apart for balance and my right fist in front of my chin with my left fist ahead, as if preparing to block something.

I turned my head towards Sake, and to my surprise, he mimicked my stance as best as a dog could. I then slowly punched the air, demonstrating the technique and repeated it several times before showcasing the full motion.

That time, though, I noticed a fist imprint fly out from my punch, but it dissipated after flying through the air for just a little. Thinking nothing of it, I turned my attention to Sake, commanding him to repeat my motions. To my surprise, he copied me pretty well.

Seeing this, I decided I would train my dog in martial arts, mostly as a joke, but if he would be able to defend himself, that would be even better.

I showed him a few more moves, even jump-kicks, but his joints wouldn't allow him to do even uppercuts or hooks, so he could only do jabs and jump-kicks as of right now. I rewarded him with treats after every move I deemed he mastered.

"Yo, Captain!" Booth called, having observed me training. "You up for a sparring match?"

He then noticed the dog beside me, in a fighting stance, which confused him to no end. "What's with the dog?"

"He wanted to get stronger," I joked. "And yeah, I'm for sure up for a couple rounds," I answered, putting my shoes back on.

Mayra made us drinks so we could quench our thirst after our sparring matches. The rules were simple, if one of us stepped out of the drawn ring, the other would be deemed the victor.

The ring was drawn on the floor of the ship, with a 15 foot radius to give us ample room to move about. We even had an audience, albeit a lackluster audience consisting of Mayra and my dog. who sat patiently beside her, tongue hanging out while Mayra stroked his fur.

I lost the first two matches, surprisingly. The first one had been rather one sided. I had thrown the first fist, and Booth blocked, then kicked my side with his seastone prosthetic. It was careless of me, and I wasn't taking it too seriously. Seeing this, Booth got angry and told me to take it seriously. So I took the second round more seriously.

The second round was evenly matched until I went for a predictable right hand jab, and he kicked me in the chest, sending me skidding towards the edge of the ring. I was regaining my balance when he swept my legs from underneath me, and sent me out of the ring.

I took a break to take a few sips from my drink. Booth was fuming now. He had noticed that I still wasn't going all out, and it irked him.

The third round is when I decided to take it seriously, and just barely edged out a win after taking advantage of my quick reflexes to dodge or block most of his attacks. His mistake was in using his seastone prosthetic to try and get a kick in, but being that his prosthetic was heavier than his other leg, it was slow and I was able to use my vertical to jump over his kick and then kick him out of the ring. Still, I had a few handicaps. I wasn't using my devil fruit, and my left calf muscle was aching with pain, which showed the gap between us. Sake howled in joy after my win.

The fourth round, I decided to use my devil fruit, and was planning on testing a new technique idea out. It ended in a one sided win without him even landing a hit. I used my powers while throwing a fist, and to my surprise, was able to recreate the fist from earlier. It dissipated into thin air after flying a few feet, just like the last one, leaving Booth to not expect anything, but when it hit just half a second later, he was sent flying out of the ring.

I decided my devil fruit was an unfair advantage, so I just decided to go all out in the last round. Booth, apparently, hadn't been trying as much as he could, but he didn't expect the gap between our strength to be that high, so he compensated for it with going all out from the start of the fifth round.

Immediately, Booth jumped for my weakness, like he would in a fight, which was currently my left leg, which I had avoided using so it could properly heal. I noticed this and jumped back to avoid his kick to my leg that would, but he then dropped to the ground to sweep my legs out from under me.

'Not this time,' I thought, leaping over him to dodge and also getting behind him as a result.

He jumped back up, and I struck his thigh with an open palm, almost allowing me to win, but he adapted and used his opposite leg to jump onto his hands and make distance between us to recover a little.

My eyes sharpened. I tried to analyze and prepare my head to dodge any oncoming attacks, but he put me back on the defense. He went to kick me from the front, but I grabbed his leg and pulled him forward, knocking him to the ground. Less than a second after, he recovered and was already back on his feet.

This time, I wouldn't allow Both to put me back on the defensive. I went for a punch with my left hand to his gut, which he blocked, but he didn't notice it was a distraction for me to get a hard hit into his face. I used the momentum from the first hit to hook him with my left fist and disorient him, if the first hit hadn't already. I continued to send a flurry of punches to him, forcing him to raise his arms to block himself from getting hit.

Still, he didn't take a step out of the ring. Then, he ducked and grabbed my waist, and proceeded to throw me over himself onto my back. I recovered in a heartbeat, but Booth was a step ahead and used his seastone shin to to kick my left calf, making me clench my jaw in pain. It hurt, and there was no doubt it was bleeding again, but it only made me more determined to win.

I put all my weight onto my right leg. My breathing was heavy now, but still, I managed to not get put on the defending end.

I jabbed at Booth's nose and he blocked it but I used that as a distraction to kick him in the chin, disorienting him, and knocking him out of bounds, winning me the fifth and final round.

I hadn't noticed, but the entire crew had been watching us at that point. Sake howled to show his excitement.

I clutched my leg again, and finished off my drink.

The blood was really pouring now, along with a thick yellow liquid. The wound was getting slightly swollen too, and the pain had somehow increased. I decided to ignore it, and went back to sleep.


	14. Chapter XII

My condition has worsened exponentially in a matter of hours. I have a fever at 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and am currently in an ice bath in an attempt to lower my body temperature while the rest of the crew finds me a doctor.

I drifted in and out of consciousness for several hours, before Mayra brought me a hot soup to drink while we had to stray off course to an island called Sjukhus Island. And there is a good reason as to why we had to go off course.

My leg is nearly at the point of needing amputation.

Naturally, I need my leg to function. I can't move my leg at the moment. So, we are changing our course to a closer island. I had the bright idea to pour rum over my infection. It burned like hell and did nothing. No surprise there, I guess. Of course the pirates have rum and no basic medical supplies or knowledge.

"Hey, how are you feeling? Are you in pain?" Jenni asked as she entered what is supposed to be the infirmary, where I was being "treated."

"I'm gucci," I answered with my eyes closed, still half asleep.

"You're what?" she questioned with a puzzled tone.

My eyes shot open immediately after realizing where I was. "I'm alright," I quickly corrected myself.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that we're docking right now," she informed. "You might even get to keep your leg," she threw in with a wink.

"Fuck you. I don't wanna be an amputee," I said with a slight curve of the lips.

Not long after, she left, and I heard their pleading voices on the bridge.

"Please! Our captain may die!" I heard a muffled voice, unable to discern to whom the voice belonged to.

Then, an alien voice, one unknown to me. "Liar! Pirate scum, our kingdom will not help you!" It sounded young, younger even than Luffy.

"Hey! They seem like they're being honest. We should help them," another voice yelled. Then, a low voice that only my advanced hearing would be able to make out because of my specific devil fruit power. I can hear the differences in the pressure of the air, echos and whatnot. I'm not sure when I noticed, because I definitely didn't notice anything at first.

For now though, I can hear things I normally wouldn't be able to.

"What do you think they're discussing?" I heard my crew speaking. I yawned, and laid back down, ready to go back to sleep.

When I woke up, I was laying in a bed, surrounded by stone wall in all four corners of the room. A small window heated the bed with the sunlight, and the rest was rather empty. Still, the atmosphere was a little cold for my liking. Apparently, while I was asleep, my wounds were cleaned, bandaged and my leg was injected with some kind of miracle medicine and I regained feeling of my leg. Also, apparently, I had been asleep for 2 days. I don't believe it, personally.

The sound of the door opening woke me from my thoughts.

Jenni crept in the room, careful to not make any loud sounds.

"What are you-" I started but was cut off as she covered my mouth with her hand.

"Don't say anything. Just listen. I'm not supposed to be in here. I needed to come and tell you at any cost. They've taken Sake, he's being held at a pound. They caught Booth, he was defending us from our attackers. We got away, but he's being held captive. I don't know where. I don't have much time now, I have to go." My expression darkened due to information presented, and Jenni walked to the door. Just as she went to open the door, it creaked open, and Jenni had to hide in the corner right behind the door.

I watched on as what seemed to be high ranking officials made their way inside the room.

"This is you. Is that not correct?" One of them interrogated, showing me my wanted poster. It wasn't a question.

As I examined it, I used the opportunity to buy time for Jenni to leave the room. "Nah, that's my twin brother."

"Twin brother? What kinda bullshit is that?" Another one spat.

"Aye, you don't know what it's like to have a pirate twin brother."

They said a few more things that I didn't hear, cause I was occupied making sure Jenni left quietly. Once she left, I spoke up. "What do you want? It's obvious y'all got some kind of ulterior motive."

"We are offering an opportunity. We can turn you in to the marines, or you and your crew can do intensive labor for 5 years and then you're free to go," the first one said.

"Well, I'm not going to jail. And I'm definitely not working for 5 years. So now, there's my third option. Leave, and you all can't do anything about it."

"We assumed you would pull something like this. That is why we have taken precautions. Take a look," he replied, before one of his henchmen pulled another sheet of paper. He flipped the paper around, showing a picture of Booth and using him against me.

His head hung low, with dried blood caked on his face. His wrists were shackled, holding him up from the ceiling. His body looked frail, like he hadn't eaten in over a week.

"I understand now..." I grimly stated, defeated. I slumped my back on the bed. "If possible, I'd like to speak to the leader of this country about the terms."

"Very well," one said before opening the door.

From there, I was escorted to a large and majestic palace, one fit for a rich nation. Nobody spoke a word on the way, but in my head, I was devising a plan.

"i understand you would like to speak about certain matters," the King boomed.

"I want confirmation from my crew that they are safe and that they will be able to safely leave this country."

"Straight to business, just how I like it," the King said. "However, what makes you think you can go around making demands?"

"In return for my friends making it out safely... I am prepared to devote the rest of my life to whatever work I have to do," I spoke, disregarding his words.

"You have my word your friends will stay safe. Guards, take him to his cell."

As the guards approached me, I stayed still, until they got close enough for me to knock one out, and then was able to decommission the other with my hand gripping his face. "You must have not heard me. I said I want confirmation. From my crew."

"Cheeky brat. You do realize I can order your crew's execution at any second, right?"

"Yea I do, but is that really worth me destroying your country and slaughtering your men like cattle? Have my crew give verbal confirmation and then I won't crush this man's skull," I hissed, the glare of my eyes threatening to burn a hole in the king's crown.

"I am a king! You! Are! A! Peasant! What right do you think you have..." I cut him off as I tightened my grip on the royal guard, forcing an ear-splitting scream out of him, along with a loud crack.

"Okay, okay, you will receive verbal confirmation that your crew is able to safely leave. As long as you pledge your undying loyalty to me."

I tightened my grip on the man's skull again, earning a yelp and getting the point across. From there, I was taken to an empty cell with only a bed and a transponder snail reciever.

I sat on the stiff mattress in my cell. The mattress made a loud creaking sound, announcing my presence to the entire cell block.

I stretched my limbs out one by one until I got to my left leg, where under the bandages were 4 holes, all cleaned, and held shut with stitches. The bandages were only used to cover the damaged muscle tissue.

In other words, my left leg was practically unusable. That meant I couldn't stretch it or my wounds might reopen. Well, with my luck, they'd end up open anyways.

 **Purupurupurupurupuru** , the transponder snail rang.

I let it ring for a little while longer before picking it up, only to be met with yelling and excitement on the other end.

"Captain? Is that you, Captain?" Melly's voice called.

"Yea, it's me. Have you all escaped?" I asked.

"What did you say? Sorry, these people are loud," he said. "Oy! Shut the fuck up, I can't hear the Captain!"

The sound died down, and it was total silence. "Have you all escaped?" I asked again.

"Escaped? Oh yea, about that," he started.

Suddenly, the face on the snail changed, and I could tell the one on the other end was Mayra. "There's been a change of plans. We're overthrowing the kingdom of this country. I'll spare you of the details, but we'll come get you soon."

The face on the snail changed again, to her brother, Booth. "Randall."

"Yea," I replied with a cold tone. "I'm not going to stop you all. Just don't go ahead and get yourselves killed. I still haven't given any of you permission to die."

"Roger that, Captain," Booth responded before the face changed again, and this time it was Jenni on the other end.

"Can you help me with something? Sake won't eat anything since we got him back, he's sad because you aren't with us. What should I do?"

"Pass him the phone," I ordered.

"He can't talk? And what the fuck is a phone?"

"Just pass the snail, don't interrogate me." I heard rustling on te other end, and then it stopped. "Sake."

Sake barked on the other end, happy to hear my voice. I took a deep breath, and yelled, "You better eat your damn food. You can't protect the crew if you die of starvation, so eat your food."

"That's stupid, dogs can't understand language like that," Jenni's voice said on the other end.

Then, Sake barked, letting me know that he understood. "Good boy. Oh, and Sake," I said with a stern tone.

He barked, so I continued. "I'll be back in no time at all, so until then, I have an important job for you."

He barked again. I continued. "Protect the crew. Do a good job and there might be treats involved when I get back."

He howled in understanding, and the snail went back to Melly. "How did the dog understand you? Actually, never mind that. We're nearing our docking point, so we'll have to let you go here."

I looked outside my cell to see a group of guards, walking around and checking every cell. "Meet me at the palace in a few hours. I'm gonna stage a break out."

"Yes, Captain," he replied before hanging up.

Just after, my cell door slid open, revealing a guard. "I haven't seen you around before. Are you fresh meat?"

"Yea, you could say that," I said, grinning wildly, after receiving an opportunity to leave my cell.

His eyes widened as I walked over to him. "No way. You- you're that rookie!"

"Indeed I am," I confirmed, right before I kicked him to the other side of the cell block. My actions didn't go unnoticed, however. Almost immediately after, an alarm went off, alerting every guard.

I quickly made a move, and took the unconscious guards keys. With them, I made quick work of cell after cell, freeing multiple prisoners and starting a riot.

We were rushed by several guards, who were taken care of by the freed prisoners, and had their keys taken to free more prisoners even.

I unlocked cell after cell, making my way around the first floor and freeing almost a hundred total prisoners, kicking off my jail break. From there, we freed a few hundred more from the higher levels.

We were soon able to barricade all the entrances to the cell block, stopping any guards from entering. While I was busy overrunning the prison, one prisoner caught my eye. He didn't move, didn't even show any emotion, just looked up, and then looked back down.

"You're not gonna leave your cell?" I asked, curious about this man's behavior.

"For what? To be thrown in a cell again? No, thank you," he coldly answered.

"Why would you be thrown in a cell again?"

"Do you honestly believe your rag tag army of prisoners can escape this prison? It's hopeless. Even if you do, somehow, the royal guards will kill you all when you step foot on the ground."

"Those guys are a joke compared to my crew. They're busy right now, overthrowing the king. I suspect the royal guard will be a little busy protecting the royal family. Let me ask you, why are you in here?"

He took a deep breath, and then answered. "Under the old king, I was a doctor, working for the people. After he died, the new king took over, and transformed the country. We went from a peaceful kingdom to now, where the new king has severed treaties and alliances with other countries. The new king, he ordered me to work for him, but I refused, and so he got angry and threw me in this cell. I've been here for 7 years now. I'm about to be 27."

"Say, how about you join my crew once we're all free? Let's overthrow this tyrant together."

"Will you really overthrow the king and free this country?"

"I always keep my word," I answered, flashing a grin.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Randall," I answered. "But you can call me Captain if you want."

"My name is Syr Enje. I was once the best doctor in this land. I had lost all hope, but maybe one day I'll be able to fulfill my dream of saving millions of people." Syr wore a white lab coat, buttoned up to the top, and tinted yellow goggles with a black strap. His feet were planted in black leather boots, and his legs and hands were decorated with cuts and lacerations.

"You got quite the dream there, but there is no doubt in my mind that you will be able to accomplish it."

After that, we assembled on the first floor along with the rest of the freed prisoners. I had a former guard draw out a map of the prison, and then had more prisoners make copies, so that everyone could see the map and we could draw out our plan.

Meanwhile, Syr was treating other prisoners for injuries recieved during the first stage of our breakout.

We counted all the heads, ending up with 380 people not including 19 injured and 1 dead. Each cell block had the capacity for 400, and this one just happened to be completely full.

We split into three uneven groups, each tasked with taking over a cell block. There were four cell blocks, the one we were currently in was the B block, and they went all the way to D block.

The group I was leading had the task of taking over the A block, which was also the most heavily guarded due to it being the first block, the one that everyone has to go through before being assigned to a cell. It also contained the main security room, main communications room and the warden's office.

With my group trailing behind me, I walked over to our makeshift barricade, and pressed my palm against it. I took a deep breath, and then activated my powers.

I focused all my energy into my attack. " **Compact Cannon** " I yelled, and released it all in a devastating attack that blew the barricade apart and cracked the thick, reinforced stone walls. Any guards that were standing in the way were dead, without any doubt.

"Let's go."


End file.
